


Trembling Hearts, Echoing Souls

by Orlha



Category: Naruto
Genre: Choose Your Own Adventure, Hatake Clan-centric, Pack Dynamics, Quest fic, Self-Insert, Sort Of, more like reader gets to make choices and the writer dances to it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2020-07-19 09:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 25,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19971514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orlha/pseuds/Orlha
Summary: Tsukimi wakes up in the hospital as a 4 year old, as a Hatake and definitely not in her world.What happens next, what she does, is all up to you.Reader makes choices.





	1. Beginnings 1

**Author's Note:**

> Depending if people participate, or something...
> 
> Probably update weekly.

She is Evelyn. She was a computer science engineer, that was until she woke up in a hospital in a body too small for her.

There is a old man snoozing in a chair beside her. She didn't recognise him, but considering her suddenly much smaller body and hands, it's not far-fetched, no matter how impossible it is, that this place she woke up in probably isn't hers. The door opens and a mini version of the sleeping man in the chair walks in.

"Imouto!" the boy cries out, waking the man beside her.

"Tsukimi!" the old man says with wide eyes. "How are you feeling?"

She didn't recognise either of them yet by the way they acted, she was sure she should have.

* * *

**Select one choice:**

[ ] she tells them she doesn't recognise them.  
[ ] she doesn't tell them but tries to figure it out herself  
[ ] write out a choice


	2. Beginnings 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As previous chp is fairly short, and also since this is a pretty new project, I guess we'll be seeing more updates?

**[X] she tells them she doesn't recognise them**

* * *

She looks down her too small hands, pudgy from baby fat. The memories of her thirty-year old self oddly distant, like a long ago memory. She remembers studying college, remembers working in a Forbes company. Evelyn hadn’t been popular or famous, but she was happy in her own average way. 

And now she’s not.

How had she gotten here? Where is she? Who are they?

_Who is Tsukimi?_

A large hand settles on the back of her head and cradles her to his chest. “Tsukimi?” The old man rumbles in a way that’s reminiscent of a dog and in spite of her churning thoughts, the rumbling sound calms her.

“Shsss, you’re safe now,” he murmurs. His warm hand rubbing circles on her back. Her hand clutches his weird green shirt vest, her nose pressed against his shirt. He pats her, whispering words of comfort and what feels like hours later, she pulls her face from his shirt, scrubbing her tears away.

“Y— you...” she stammers and shakes. 

Was she a body snatcher? Would telling them be a good idea? Would they be furious?

Her body trembles harder. She isn’t sure she could live a life without telling them this. Somehow, in her, she is certain that she could trust them with her life and soul - an unwavering belief that she’s not sure why.

She looks down at the little boy that is watches her with worried eyes.

“Are you… my family? Is Tsukimi, me?” 

A fleeting anger crosses the old man’s face before dissipating, the boy’s anger is less quick to disappear.

“Yes.” The old man adjusts her so she could properly look at both him and the boy. “I’m your Papa, Kakashi is your older brother.”

The boy, Kakashi, winces, his hands fisting the blankets on the bed he is sitting on. “I am six this year. You are four,” he tells her. 

~~The old man~~ Papa sets her beside Kakashi and pets them both on the head. “Kakashi, look after your sister. I… I have to go find a medic-nin.”

Kakashi nods and Papa steps outside, sliding the door shut behind him. They sit there in the dimly lit room with only the sound of the carts rattling past to fill the silence.

“I’ll never forgive him,” Kakashi finally says, startling her. “You don’t remember what happen. I told him not to…” 

He punches the bed with a snarl.

“I don’t…” she start and pause, carefully reconsidering her words.

* * *

**Select one choice of A & B, B2:**

Options A:

[ ] Ask him what happened  
[ ] Change the topic  
[ ] Stay silent  


Options B: Should she have read Naruto in her previous life?

[ ] Yes  
[ ] No

Options B2: If you picked yes, should she remember now?

[ ] Yes  
[ ] No


	3. Beginnings 3

**[X] Ask him what happened**

**Should she have read Naruto in her previous life? [X] Yes**

**If you picked yes, should she remember now? [X] No**

* * *

“I don’t…” she start and pause, carefully reconsidering her words. “Could you tell me what happened?”

The boy sighs. “Otousan was out for a short mission, he didn’t have time to get a babysitter, so I took you out after lunch. Obito wanted to play replacement tag.” He turns to look at her, reaching out to grab her hand.

What could have happened that required her be sent to the hospital? The solemn looks on both the man and the boy seemed to have indicated something serious. 

“When Obito tried to teach you how to use the replacement jutsu, I told you that Otousan had specified that you weren’t supposed to use your chakra without supervision.” He scoffs. “Refused to listen. The replacement jutsu snapped when you attempted and coupled with your chakra sensitivity…”

“And coupled with your chakra sensitivity, your body went into shock,” a female voice continued and they spun around in surprise. Behind ~~the old man~~ Papa is a blond haired woman with a white apron that had the kanji “medicine” on it. 

Evelyn is sure that she hadn’t known this language before waking up here. 

“When that happened all your chakra flooded your core in attempts to ‘save’ you from whatever trauma that might have occurred. In most scenarios, this automatic defense would have saved your life. However since it was a simple snap that shouldn’t have hurt anymore than accidentally raising your head too fast, the body overreacted causing it to be potentially fatal.”

The lady crouches before Evelyn, looking at her straight in the eyes. “Do you understand how dangerous it is? If your nii-san had brought you a few minutes later, we wouldn’t be having this conversation anymore.” She raises a glowing green hand. “I’m going to check your core with chakra, make sure it’s regulating properly again. Ready?” 

She waits for Evelyn to nod before careful sets it on Evelyn’s chest. Just as Evelyn wonders what the big fuss is, a jag of red hot fire spikes through her, starting from her chest. Her lips tremble and unable to stop herself, she bursts into tears, trying to squirm away had it not been for Papa’s firm grip.

“All done,” the lady says, retracting her hand. 

The red hot fire splutters to nothing, but her tears refuse to stop. Her baby emotions just wants comfort, wants Papa.

Papa picks her up, hoisting her up onto his hip. “Will there be any future issues?”

“No more than her chakra sensitivity would bring. Just be careful and do more chakra conditioning exercises before the basic control ones.

“Thank you Tsunade.”

The lady waves him off and steps out of the room, sliding the door shut behind her.

Papa cradles her, placing her head at the crook of his neck. “Shush little moon, the day is done. Gone is the sun, the deer has come out to play...”

Her eyes are closing now, the sound of his lullaby, the low pitched rumble against her ear, the smell of pack all lulling her to sleep.

“...what do you want for dinner, Kakashi?” she hears him whisper and she smells a nearby scent that makes her think of comfort and love.

 _Nii-san,_ she thinks blearily and nods off.

✥.✥.✥

He is Hatake Sakumo.

He is Konoha’s White Fang, the man with the S rank bingo book, one of the five Hokage potentials.

He is also the man that failed his own pack.

Logically, Sakumo knew he had done everything he could have done to protect his two children. Kakashi is a prodigy with a maturity that is rare to find even on a genin-graduate. Tsukimi had always been willing to follow his orders. There hadn’t been a time he had to worry about them disobeying him.

Kakashi definitely wouldn’t have. Sakumo had sat him down and explain exactly what Tsukimi’s chakra sensitivity might impact. None of which were pleasant. He didn’t want to be the person who ruined another child’s future but it’s a risk Sakumo couldn’t take.

The doorbell rings while he’s making dinner. Without even opening the door, he already knows who it is.

“Kakashi, look after the fish,” he says, pulling out the stool for Kakashi to stand on. At least this would distract him, Sakumo thinks as he down the hallway and into the living room.

“Uchiha-san,” he greets, his voice colder than he’s ever used on his friend.

Kagami squeezes his son’s hand tightly. “Sakumo, I came here to apologise for my son’s behavior.”

Sakumo lifts an eyebrow. He doesn’t invite them to sit, doesn’t offer tea. His stance on their relationship is obvious and Kagami knows. Sakumo can’t even look at Obito without wanting to fly into a rage.

“What my son did was irresponsible, I hope that—”

“No.”

“ — if there’s anyway of making this bett—”

“No, there is nothing you can say or do to make this better,” Sakumo cuts him off. “Kakashi _told_ your son multiple times not to and your son— “

“He is only ten, please— ” Kagami begs. 

“My daughter nearly died!”

The two Uchihas’ faces turn ashen.

“I instructed very clearly to my son and daughter very clearly not to let her channel chakra without proper shinobi supervision. Your son _egged_ her on. You say your son is ten, my daughter is only _four_ ,” Sakumo says. The muscles on his neck so tense that he could hardly pull a breath. “If Kakashi had been a moment slower, would you give my daughter back? Can you give back my daughter’s memories?”

Sakumo turns away. He doesn’t watch them leave.

He is Hatake Sakumo.

He is Konoha’s White Fang, the man with the S rank bingo book, one of the five Hokage potentials.

And he won’t fail his own pack ever again.

✥.✥.✥

Evelyn blinks. She’s cocooned under a thick fluffy blanket that smells like familiar. There’s something wrong, she realises. Despite the fact that her brother’s bed is across the room, she can somehow smell him.

Her heart calms at his smell.

_Pack._

_Safety._

_Love._

_Protection._

She sits up, taking a good look of the room. In the early evening sun, she can make out her brother and her bed on one side of the room with a small bedside table sandwiched between them. There is a photograph on it, a family picture with an old man, a woman, Kakashi and a baby. It’s not hard to guess that the baby must have been her.

Or would she say, Tsukimi, the original owner.

Evelyn wonders if the original Tsukimi had died or maybe she woke up. Carefully, she tries to pull up memories and remembers painting a wolf dog’s nails, riding the wolf dog around like a horse. She remembers following Kakashi around until he got irritated and hid in the bathroom. She remembers playing cat cradle with another white haired girl.

Then as her vague memories floated up, it became obvious to her. She is Tsukimi and Evelyn but once upon a time, she was just Tsukimi.

“Tsu-chan?” a low baritone calls out as he slides open the door. The wolf dog tilts his head at her. “Tsu-chan, do you want to come out and help set the table?”

He pads over to her and tugs the blanket off her.

“Shima?” Tsukimi surrenders to his nuzzling, reluctantly allowing Shima to push her out into and down the hallway. 

“Don’t think you’re getting out of punishment,” Papa says when she enters the kitchen. “You’re still going to do your training after dinner.”

Kakashi sets the table, scooping rice into the bowls for them. Papa sets the plates of broiled fish in the middle of the table. 

“You have to do an hour of training, but I’ll allow you to choose.” Papa smiles.

* * *

**Select ONE choice:**

[ ] Agility training - You want better flexibility. (proceeds up to better reflexes, faster running and movement speed)

[ ] Strength training - You want to punch and kick harder. (proceeds up to being able to use strength based weapons and katas)

[ ] Endurance training - You want to outlast. (proceeds to being able to fight, run and train longer, as well as take more hits)

[ ] Balance training - You want to be able to stay on your feet at all times. (proceeds to specialised weaponry and katas)

[ ] Weapons handling - (proceeds up to weapons training)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably should note that there is no Obito bashing or really anyone at all in this fic. It's just plottish and character development for Obito.


	4. Beginnings 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry got stuck on this chp... :_:

**[X] Agility training - You want better flexibility. (proceeds up to better reflexes, faster running and movement speed)**

* * *

“Training?” She blinked owlishly at Papa. 

He reaches over to adjust her fingers on the chopsticks and brushes a stray rice from her cheek. “Training. What do you want to do today? Agility? Strength? Endurance? Balance?” Papa tears up the fish into smaller pieces, putting some on her rice. “Or maybe weapons just like your nii-san?”

“Agility…?” She replies, deciding that she had no idea what but agility sounded good. She remembers playing computer games as Evelyn and remembering agility was one of the best stats. Either insanely underpowered or overpowered. Tsukimi didn’t think she would become a ninja, but...

Kakashi spluttered and chokes on his miso soup. Somehow with Kakashi’s reaction, Tsukimi couldn’t help but wonder if she had picked the wrong answer.

Agility is a good trait for most fighters,  _ right?  _

“Is that a question or answer?” Papa asks.

Tsukimi is half tempted to retract her words, but Evelyn never backs down after she says something. Even though she’s now a mix of Tsukimi and Evelyn, there is less Tsukimi than there is Evelyn.

“Answer,” she says and Papa laughs.

“Otousan! She just got out of the hospital! You can’t—” 

“Nonsense! Agility training is good for you.  _ You _ should do more.” Papa ruffles his hair.

“Otouuuu-san!” Kakashi whines and pouts. “Don’t blame me if Tsunade-baachan beats you up.”

Papa puts more fish on their bowls. “The White Fang isn’t going to hide behind a six year old academy student. Now hurry and finish your food.”

“Says the White Fang who did that the last time—“ 

Papa hurriedly puts some fish into Kakashi’s mouth. “Someone’s going to get more laps if he keeps talking.” 

Scrunching his face at Papa, Kakashi turns back to devour his rice and fish.

✥.✥.✥

“Move faster!” Papa yells. “Fingers to your tippy toes!” 

He claps and Tsukimi struggles to keep up with the beat. Her lungs are heaving, her muscles are screaming. Kakashi is swinging his boken on the other side of the dojo giving her sympathetic looks.

Why did she ever pick agility training?

“Three rounds around the dojo!” She wheezes. 

Eventually, with great effort, she finishes her rounds and flops onto the ground. 

“Come on.” Papa pushes her up, guiding her through cooling down exercises. “Good job!” he smiles and ruffles her hair, lifting her up to settle on his arm. 

She looks up, taking in Papa’s face. The chiselled features, the mess of pale silvery hair flowing down his back. Turning, she watches Kakashi mop up the floor, his short silvery hair floating like a bird’s nest.

They look familiar. Not just because she had seen parts of Tsukimi’s memories. It’s on the edge of her tongue, something urging her to remember to stop something. 

She presses her face against his shoulder and watches Kakashi slide all the shoji close. The light from the lamp posts outside filter through, casting long shadows across the dojo.

There is a sense of urgency. 

The light flickers. A vision of a body on the ground, disappearing as the light flickers back on.

She turns back to Papa who bends to scoop Kakashi by the waist. His chest vibrates from his chuckles as Kakashi struggles to free himself. 

* * *

  
  


**Select one choice:**

[ ] Tsukimi struggles to figure what this sense of urgency is and what the body was

[ ] Tsukimi tells them she saw a body

[ ] Tsukimi ignores it and pretends all is normal

**Select one of each section:**

Tsukimi's hair:

[ ] Long and tied in a ponytail like Sakumo's  
[ ] Short and flyaway like Kakashi's  
[ ] Braided  
[ ] Short and cropped to the chin   
[ ] Write in your choice  


Tsukimi's eye color:

[ ] Brown  
[ ] Black  
[ ] Dark grey like Kakashi and Sakumo  
[ ] Write in your choice  



	5. Beginnings 5

**[X] Tsukimi struggles to figure what this sense of urgency is and what the body was**

**[X] Short and cropped to the chin**

**[X] Dark grey like Kakashi and Sakumo**

* * *

She turns back, eyeing the spot where the body had flickered. 

_Like a ghost image of those scare videos,_ Tsukimi thinks.

Papa carries them off to the bathroom, helping her undress and soap down. Contrary to her expectations, there was surprisingly no embarrassment to it, not even when Kakashi joins them in the tub after that. Maybe it’s the effect of Tsukimi’s memories, she muses. 

Papa lifts her out after a while, blow drying her hair until it’s fluffy and wispy and she gets the first of herself since she had ‘woken’ up. Pale silver hair, short and cropped to and eyes just like Papa and Kakashi, grey so dark that she almost mistook it for black. Whatever, wherever this is, it’s so unlike Evelyn’s world. Silver hair there was often an indication of old age.

She turns to Papa, raising her arms up and Papa swings her up onto his arms. 

So arms up are a universal language. _Dimensional,_ she corrects herself.

He sets her down in bedroom where a duplicate copy of himself is laying out the beds.

 _Futons._ The word rises unbidden.

“There’s two of you, Papa!” She stares at the copy.

“It’s a shadow clone, Little Moon.” He tucks the blanket around her, hand brushing her fringe from her face. “It’s a high ranked chakra technique. Remember you’re _never_ supposed to use your chakra without me or a chuunin and above supervisor.”

Papa crouches beside her, a streak of light crosses his face, delineating the features of his face.

The sense of urgency reaches up and grabs air from her lungs. 

He pats her, singing the same lullaby he sang that day in the hospital. Her eyes are heavy now.

“...the day is done. Gone is the sun, the deer has come out to play. The owls are...”

There is a large crimson moon above her weeping blood. It blinks. A line bisects the night sky. The buildings burning beneath a large fox.

Screaming.

Screaming.

A body on the dojo.

“Papa!” she screams

Arms flailing, struggling to free herself from the chains. Only they’re not chains, just the blanket. She feels arms pulling her free from the blanket. The smell safety and love pressed against her nose.

“You’re okay, imouto,” the young boy repeats, rubbing circles on her back.

She pushes away and heaves her dinner out and over them. “I’m sorry…” She trembles and the boy sighs.

“Oh fuck,” a female voice swears.

“You swore in front of Sensei’s children!” Another voice chirps in. “Hah! Sensei’s gonna kill you!”

“Shut up Kushina.”

“...I’ll get the bath running…” a male voice mutters.

“It’s okay imouto,” the boy says. “Shinobis will need to learn how to deal with everything including vomit.” He nods solemnly. “Otousan said that.”

She looks at him, really looks at him this time. The boy’s silver eyelashes frame his eyes, his hair is like a wild bird nest - half standing, half flopped over his face.

“Kakashi-kun, come let me get you cleaned up,” a red haired girl calls from the door.

Kakashi.

Hatake Kakashi?

_Like Naruto?_

The revelation crests, knocking her silly for an instant. Her mind caught in a loop of disbelief and shock. The other girl steps forward and Tsukimi stares at her, panic punching through her.

“Fuck,” Tsukimi says the only one she could coherently think of.

“Sensei’s definitely gonna kill you,” the red haired girl tells the other girl.

* * *

**Pick two choices for Sakumo's genin team:**

[ ] Hyuuga Hisashi

[ ] Hyuuga Hizashi

[ ] Nara Shikaku

[ ] Yamanaka Inoichi

[ ] Akimichi Chouza

[ ] Uchiha Mikoto

[ ] Uchiha Fugaku

[ ] Inuzuka Tsume

[ ] Aburame Shibi

[ ] <Last name> Yoshino

[ ] Akimichi / Nara / Yamanaka / Shimura / Sarutobi / Shiranui / Haruno / Kato / Uchiha / Senju / Inuzuka / Aburame / Hyuuga <Name>

_Notes: Last choice will result in a random skill/appearance/gender if not selected but not specified._

_Further notes: Namikaze Minato is not included in this choice. Any 'Namikaze Minato' choice votes made would be ignored._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh it's short, but I wanted you all to have the option of picking Sakumo's 2 other students.


	6. Beginnings 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, I changed the title from Blue Summer Sky to trembling hearts, echoing soul. 
> 
> Mostly because A) I just realised it's very close to my other fic's title and B) the new title is more linked to plots later in the story.

**[X] Uchiha Mikoto**

**[X] Inuzuka Tsume**

* * *

Tsukimi couldn’t remember who that girl was. All she recognises is the red and white fan on the girl’s sleeves. Her brother is Kakashi, her father is Sakumo. Her memories are a mess, fragmenting when she tries to access them. Tsukimi’s and Evelyn’s so intertwined that she has difficulty separating them.

There are memories of her eating ice cream but she couldn’t tell if it was Tsukimi or Evelyn and the pressure on her chest that she is certain that it has to do with waking up in the world of Naruto.

How did this even happen? Was this some sort of dimension? Or maybe a coma dream?

Tsukimi passes the next few days in a haze, trying hard to recall what happened in the manga. All she could remember were pieces of blond hair and blue eyes, a swing, a large crimson moon and black coats with red clouds on it.

How incredibly useless.

Suddenly all the training Papa had been giving them made sense. The Hatakes have been shinobi for generations, Tsukimi would be one of them.

The thought of murdering people on orders makes her sick. Wouldn’t the choice of becoming a shinobi would be up to her in the end?

Tsukimi couldn’t help but wonder which end of Narutoverse have she landed in. Fanfictions of Naruto had swung on either end of the spectrum - the hopeless good one or the dark shadowy sorts.

She eyes Mikoto who swoops down to wipe her face clean from her breakfast.

“I hope Sakumo-sensei would be back soon. I thought I was done doing D ranks when I became a chuunin,” Kushina mutters.

“YO BRATS! I BROUGHT MOCHI!” their wolfish teammate yells from the window.

“Tsume! Get off the sill before— “A volley of kunai fly out so fast that Tsukimi could barely catch a glimpse of their flight. Tsume somersaults upwards, picking the kunai off and slaps a pulse of chakra on the window’s frame.

“Bah— Forgot sensei is a paranoid bastard,” Tsume says then freezes, turning wide eyed at Kakashi and her.

“Nii-san, what’s a paranoid bastard?” Tsukimi asks. She remembered this in her past life when her nephew decided to copy her potty mouth. 

“A bastard is someone who is born— “ 

A large hand covered Kakashi’s mouth, Papa loomed over them with a smile at his students. “My cute little genins, why do my children know that word?”

“Sensei! You’re back!” they chorus.

Oh no, Tsume mouths soundlessly, desperately staring at Tsukimi.

Just to be a little shit, Tsukimi turns to Papa with large round eyes. “Papa what is a paranoid bastard? The doggie lady called you that.”

Kuromaru yips and hides himself behind Kushina’s legs.

“Oh, did she?” Papa smiled wider at her. “Mikoto, would you take Kakashi to the academy? I need to remind Tsume-chan of how to act around young children.”

✥.✥.✥

Papa continued having one on one chakra conditioning lessons with her in spite of his increased mission load. Tsukimi suspects that she wouldn’t have noticed if she was anything less than a weird amalgamation of adult and child in a child’s body. Often she would see one of Papa’s students making breakfast or dinner. There are days where she wouldn’t even see Papa’s shadow.

Kakashi seemed to plough on with steadfast determination, hovering around her whenever he was out of school. He practiced his katas daily, wordlessly fixing her poses as she toddles after him, mimicking him.

“Remember imouto, no—” Kakashi reminds her.

“No chakra practice without Papa or Mikoto-neesan around,” she repeats it back to him. Kakashi made a point to remind her every time she watched him practice the basic three.

He nods, satisfied that she would not attempt it and folds his hands into the appropriate seals. Kushina’s clone stood at the back of the dojo, watching their practice with keen eyes.

“Kid, your clone is good enough to graduate. How come your teachers haven’t pushed you for graduation?” the clone asks when he performs a flawless henge of Tsunade.

It had been something that bothered Tsukimi. From the bits and pieces of memories she had managed to gather, she remembered one glaring discrepancy: Kakashi had been known to be one of the youngest graduates. Yet her Kakashi had not. He is six now, the next youngest graduate is seven. 

Kakashi scoffs. “If I graduated now, then I’d be sent on missions. Who’s going to look after imouto?”

A ripple that Tsukimi had caused without realising. How many more have she caused?

“Oh Kakashi-kun, I’m sure Sakumo-sensei would figure things out. You shouldn’t hold yourself back just because you want to be there for your imouto.”

“I’m not. I’m merely investing more time in training essential skills,” is all he says before turning back to his practice.

✥.✥.✥

In the end, the choice of him graduating is taken out of Kakashi and Papa’s hands.

From up on the tree branch, Papa holds both of them on his shoulder and arms, watching the Third Hokage stand up on the podium. 

The Hokage puts his hands up and a hush falls. 

“Today, Iwagakure and Kumogakure have declared war on Sunagakure and Shimogakure. Our scouts have picked their movement much earlier this year and as expected—”

Words Tsukimi never learnt tumble out of the Hokage’s mouth, making it difficult for her to focus on top of her four year old body’s attention span.

“— We will hold fast in light of such conflict. Shimogakure and—”

“Papa, what’s happening?” Tsukimi tugs his vest. “Papa— “

“Later I’ll explain okay? Be quiet for now,” Sakumo replies, ruffling her hair before turning back to the Hokage. 

Tsukimi turns to take in the mass amount of shinobis. On every chair, railing, ledge and even wall stood a shinobi. Their headbands dulling glinting in the overcast sunlight. 

Now that she thought about it, it had been months since she woke up here. Time had passed so quickly without her realising it. Dimension travel is starting to look more likely. 

She fiddles with the cat cradle string Kakashi had given her.

Papa have declared her ready for chakra control exercises now that her body had gotten used to her chakra. 

“Oh no…” Papa says, his muttering covered by the roar of the shinobis.

He leaps away, carrying them away from the crowds.His feet barely grazing the rooftops until they come to a stop in their garden. He sets them in front of him. The twinkling mischievous 

“Otousan…” He clenches his fists. “I— Imouto…”

Papa crouches and hugs them tightly. “Just because you and your classmates are all going to be accelerated into graduation, it doesn’t mean you’ll automatically go out of the village soon.” 

He takes a deep breath, scenting his pack again. “I’ll protect you in any way I can. Train both of you hard enough that you’ll survive the oncoming war.” Pulling away, Papa cups Kakashi’s cheek. “The war is starting on the other side, but Konoha isn’t at war yet. We still have time.”

Except not enough time, Tsukimi hears. 

* * *

**Over the one year, select two projects Tsukimi should work on:**

[ ] Intermediate agility training - You become harder to hit as well parry faster. You can move faster than an average child of your age. 

_Leads into - > Advanced agility training_  
_Specialised clan agility training._  
_Specialised clan katas_

[ ] Strength training - You want to punch and kick harder. (proceeds up to being able to use strength based weapons and katas)

[ ] Endurance training - You want to outlast. (proceeds to being able to fight and train longer)

[ ] Cardio training - You want to outrun. (proceeds to being able to run and train for longer periods) 

[ ] Balance training - You want to be able to stay on your feet at all times. (proceeds to specialised weaponry and katas)

[ ] Weapons handling (proceeds up to weapons training)

[ ] Calligraphy and Kanji practice (proceeds to fuinjutsu)

[ ] Basic chakra control - All academy students start with this. How else would they get good with jutsu? (proceeds into advanced chakra control*) 

_*Advanced chakra control is basic requirement for early graduation option. Early graduation requires advanced chakra control + 2 or more advanced training._


	7. Academy 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. Just moved from Asia to America last week, finally got my pc working. Was busy with the move and will be busy for the next few weeks too. My wedding's in a few weeks! \o/

**[14] Intermediate agility training - You become harder to hit as well parry faster. You can move faster than an average child of your age.**

**[13] Calligraphy and Kanji practice (proceeds to fuinjutsu)**

Tsukimi fiddles with her brush and sets it aside once she realises she won't be able to concentrate enough to finish her calligraphy practice. From the whispers she heard Papa and Kakashi talk late in the night, Tsukimi knew that war, if it hadn't yet by the end of the year, was going to descend on them soon. 

All she knew that she was in the world of Naruto, a time when Naruto hadn't been born yet. The only war she vaguely remembered had a giant woman with horns. She was trying really had to remember, but it was starting to feel a tall wall wrapped around her memories. 

Perhaps that had been there when she died? 

Papa and Kakashi reminded her that it was okay for her not to remember things, that an accident that apparently involved a Uchiha Obito has affected her memory. Had it been that accident that woke her up? Maybe she isn't supposed to remember. The Chinese culture believed the river of forgetfulness is one of the rivers that spirits had to cross after dying. 

Tsukimi isn't sure if she's happier with that thought. 

She hears the jangle of the security seals alerting her of new arrivals and quickly picks up her brush, tracing the kanji characters out as Papa stepped into the room with his mission pack. He peels his sandals off, wiping his feet with a towel before lumbering towards her. 

"Welcome back, Papa!" 

He nuzzles his face into her hair and she presses her face into his dirty vest, hands gripping the edge of his jounin blue shirt. In spite of the smell of blood in his clothes, Papa's scent of protection and love comforts her. She never had senses as strong as this, neither did she ever take comfort in people's smell, but it had to be a Hatake thing. Kakashi, just like Papa seemed to take comfort on smelling each other, her especially. She wonders if this is because she is the youngest. 

"I'm home, pup," he replies then sags into the chair, pulling her onto his lap. 

"Are you hungry? I can make you something."

He palms his eyes with a groan. "Please tell me my students have been looking after you. And you haven't been cooking for yourself."

"Well…" 

Papa heaves a large sigh and tightens his arms around her. "I don't want to know. If I do, I might need to string someone up. Papa just needs cuddles now." He takes another breath of her scent again. "Tell me what you and your nii-san have been doing since I left."

"Kushina-neesan was looking after us after Mikoto-neesan and Tsume-Neeson were sent out on a mission. Then she made me calligraphy exercise books!" Tsukimi points at the sheets of paper bound together. "Kushina-neesan says I need to finish _all_ before she teaches me more. There are so many pages…" 

Papa chuckles. "Fuinjutsu is a very time consuming skill. Very steep learning curve." 

She tilts her head at him with a frown. 

"Why?" Tsukimi had guessed that learning fuinjutsu would be difficult but not that it'd just be all kanji learning. If it was all kanji, wouldn't scholars be able to do it easily? Or was there some other prerequisite? 

"There are roughly 10,000 kanji characters each have different meanings and implications. An average civilian will know about 1,000 to 2,000. An average shinobi will know about 2,000 to 3,000. A fuinjutsu user would have to know at least 6,000. And that's because the slightest difference in the choice of kanji… " 

Papa picks up the brush and writes out two different characters. "These two both mean fire. But this one on the left means a sudden fire while the other means a gradual fire. And if you put one or the other as the center of your tag, if could either become a campfire starter or an explosive tag."

She stares wide-eyed at the characters. “But why?”

“Why what, little moon?” 

His stomach rumbles and she laughs at him, pointing at the fridge when her attempts to hop off his lap is deterred by his tight hug. “Kushina-neesan left stuff for ochazuke.”

Papa stands, balancing her on his hip. Peering into the fridge, he pulls out the leftover rice and puts the kettle on for hot water.

“Why can’t we just see the dictionary and paint it?”

“To do a proper seal, you need properly infused chakra ink and to do that, is by feeding chakra while inking the seal. And you need to know what this character mean, what type of chakra you need. Whether you need a slow chakra feed for a campfire or...” 

“A burst for an explosion!” He tickles her sides mercilessly and she bursts out in laughter.

“Papa stop!” 

He gives her another tickle then presses a kiss on the side of her head. “Intricacies the kanji in a seal doesn’t revolve around _one_ seal. It includes all the seals. If you match the wrong characters that require different chakra inputs, you’ll get a dud seal at best, or one that explodes in your face at worst. Not to mention speed of painting them kanji itself.”

Setting two bowls, he puts the rice in and pours hot tea into it. “And that’s why, my Little Moon, learning all as many kanji as possible is important in fuinjutsu.”

Tsukimi sighs mournfully. 

“If you really want a break…” Papa grins cheekily at her. “After naptime, Papa will teach you new agility exercises!”

✥.✥.✥

From the words Kakashi uses to describe his team, Tsukimi can tell he hates them. ‘Irresponsible, immature, lack of work ethic’ are some of the words he uses to describe them. 

Kakashi’s teacher is Kushina’s boyfriend who dropped by to introduce himself. Papa tells Kakashi that Minato is a prodigy just like him and that for an average shinobi, it would always be difficult to measure up him and Minato. 

Somehow Tsukimi isn’t all that surprised when his two teammates ended up being sent to the genin corps while Minato apprentices Kakashi. 

His teammates weren’t Obito and Rin, that’s why they wouldn’t have lasted, Tsukimi thinks when she’s lying in bed. She’s not sure who Obito or Rin is, but for some reason they are important.

✥.✥.✥

Tsukimi hates children. As Evelyn, she hadn't wanted children too, the wailing, the tantrums. Looking after her siblings had been enough. Academy with children her age is a terrible ordeal.

The whining, the screaming. 

Tsukimi works hard on the entrance exams, a conglomeration of Evelyn’s math and problem solving methods cuts through the questions. 

“ _Another prodigy just like her brother.”_

“Hatake-chan, please greet your class. Class this is your new classmate.”

A group of seven year olds stare back at her. 

This is probably better than the four year olds, right?

* * *

**Select one choice:**

[ ] Tsukimi tries hard to make friends

[ ] Tsukimi won't go out of her way to make friends, but won't reject anyone who reaches out to her

[ ] Tsukimi doesn’t care enough to. She is equally aloof to all classmates that do tries and classmate that don’t.

* * *

**Further notes:** We’ll be skipping through her schooling years fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been struggling not to add angst into the fic. So the consistency of emotions in this fic is a bit awkward cuz I’m like ‘oh no too much angst!’ and try to rein it. Ahh I’m sorry for the quality.


	8. Academy 2

**[20] Tsukimi won't go out of her way to make friends, but won't reject anyone who reaches out to her**

Predictably, her age has caused her to be alienated from most of her classmates or babied by the rest. Tsukimi isn’t sure which she hates more. The katas she learns in class is different from the ones Papa practices with her which just makes it look like she can’t keep up physically.

All in all, Tsukimi hates the academy. The ‘homework’ is just as boring as classwork and she’s too mentally old for this, and physically too young to interact with people her mental age. If Tsukimi had to be honest, in spite of her weird old-young age, her body still had the reactions and urges of a now five year old. She’s not proud of the fact that she had just thrown a tantrum because Papa had to wake her early to get ready for school. 

It aggravated her when her body and mind contradicted.

“Got up on the wrong side of the bed?” a voice drawls beside her. 

“Go away,” she grumbles, face pillowed by her arms. 

“Want a milk sweet?” another voice pipes up on the other side of her.

There could only be one person who offered her sweets and for some reason his future teammate liked sitting beside her in class for the last one year.

“Go away Chouto,” she mumbled back. If Papa wasn’t at home right now, she might even consider cutting class.

Predictably, or maybe unpredictably considering he’s friends with the surliest Nara ever walked the earth, Chouto only puts the candy on her head and takes the seat next to her.

She raises her head to eye the Nara beside her, candy sliding off her head as she does. His narrow eyes seem to dance with mirth even when Tsukimi squints harder at him. “What exactly are you trying to do, Nara Ensui?”

He sighs and leans his face on a palm. “Troublesome.”

“Ensui thought you could use a friend,” Chouto replies.

_I don’t need a friend,_ lies on her mouth but she swallows it. She promised herself that she wouldn’t turn anyone who tried.

“Whatever,” she mutters and burrows her face back into her arms, letting the lull of the early morning lectures roll over her. 

It’s lunch by the time Chouto all but hauls her off the desk, handing her the lunchbox Papa had tucked into her bag this morning. She lets Chouto manhandle her, carrying her like a sack of rice into the yard and under a tree. Ensui drops to the ground, with a sigh of relief. 

Reluctantly, she opens her bento. Two chicks look at back at her. Papa had made onigiris shaped like two chicks for lunch. Perhaps it was to assuage her mood, but all it makes her feel is guilt. Papa had come back late last night and still gotten up to make her a cute bento. 

She’s _supposed_ to be an adult - at least mentally. 

She slaps the cover back onto the box and puts it away, choosing to lie down and turn from the two. 

“You have to eat, Tsukimi-chan.” Chouto pokes her with the back of his chopsticks. “We have spars later.” He pokes her harder. “Mi-chan…”

“Leave her alone,” Ensui says. “She’s throwing a tantrum.”

Tsukimi clenches her jaw, wanting to yell at him, but he is correct. Instead, she stands and stalks off the yard. She’s five, she’s going to enjoy being five and a kid for as long as she can. Slipping up and out of the yard, Tsukimi decides that school could go screw itself. She’s going to find Kakashi.

✥.✥.✥

Sakumo tries to be a good father but it’s difficult when he’s one of the more sought-after shinobis and with Kakashi no longer being around to take care of his youngest, he can’t help but worry. His students are all full-fledged shinobis in their own right, with their own missions, it’s impossible to depend on them on being around all the time and in the beginnings of war, what were once considered C ranks are now being counted as D ranks, getting a consistent D rank babysitter for his youngest would be nearly impossible.

He’s half tempted to put her in childcare, until Kushina reminded him on the fiasco his two children had the last time he had done so. He’s really not keen on paying again the destroyed cafeteria and burnt toys.

At least his youngest is now in academy and his oldest have a jounin sensei to watch over.

It’s not much of a consolation as he wants it to be but it’s the best he will get.

He wrestles his youngest to school, not thinking much of it. Kakashi had hated academy too, all the noise and smells had always been difficult for him. So, when Hato stops him to discuss Tsukimi, Sakumo’s shocked to hear that not only had Tsukimi not been performing in class, he’s also shocked that Tsukimi had been skipping classes.

Somehow, he had assumed that Tsukimi would have talked to him if she had problems. 

He waits impatiently outside the academy to pick her up after school, but she doesn’t appear. 

“Hatake-san?” an Akimichi calls out with Tsukimi’s bag in his arms and a Nara trailing behind him. “Mi-chan skipped class after lunch.”

Sakumo groans inwardly. He’s missing something, not quite sure if there’s a problem or if he’s overthinking it. For all he knows, it could be as simple as having no interest in school. 

“Thank you for letting me know,” he says, taking Tsukimi’s bag from them. At least she seems to have friends, Sakumo assuages himself. That’s at least a tiny step up from Kakashi who only had Gai because he and Mai had forced playdates.

Sakumo sniffs the air, picking up the subtle tones of her scent through the woods.

“Are you tracking her?” the Akimichi asks, following him. “Mi-chan was grumpy today.”

“She’s always grumpy, Chouto...” the Nara mumbles. 

“Is she? Is that how she’s like in school?” Sakumo prodes, perhaps he could find out more from them.

“Yes, but she’s _exceptionally_ grumpy today, Ensui. She didn’t even want to eat and she’s always trying to sleep in class.”

“I’m not surprised.” Ensui slouches, hands deep in his pocket, trailing behind Sakumo and Chouto. “If I had to deal with a class of people who either treated me like a baby or made snide remarks of me being in the wrong class, I would have ditched class faster than Hato-sensei could say chakra.”

Her scents get stronger as they arrive at the forest section of training ground. They around the bend of trees and Sakumo freezes. A growl forms at the base of his throat as he leaps forward, placing himself between Obito and his daughter.

* * *

**Select one choice:**

[ ] Tsukimi tries to change the future she knows from the manga by telling someone about it.  
(Include X person in your comment)

[ ] Tsukimi tries to change the future she knows from the manga by doing it all by herself.   
(This option Includes early graduation)

[ ] Tsukimi decides to let things go as how it’s fated to be

**Over next one year, select two projects Tsukimi should work on:**

[ ] Advanced agility training - You dodge, evade and parry fast. You are able to use the environment to your advantage by bouncing off them. You can move as fast as a freshly graduated genin. 

[ ] Strength training - You want to punch and kick harder. (proceeds up to being able to use strength based weapons and katas)

[ ] Endurance training - You want to outlast. (proceeds to being able to fight and train longer)

[ ] Cardio training - You want to outrun. (proceeds to being able to run and train for longer periods) 

[ ] Balance training - You want to be able to stay on your feet at all times. (proceeds to specialised weaponry and katas)

[ ] Weapons handling (proceeds up to weapons training)

[ ] Basic fuinjutsu. You learn how to make basic storage and explosion seals - the foundation of all seals.

[ ] Basic chakra control - All academy students start with this. How else would they get good with jutsu? (proceeds into advanced chakra control*) 

[ ] Specialised clan agility training

[ ] Specialised clan katas 

_*Advanced chakra control is basic requirement for early graduation option. Early graduation requires advanced chakra control + 2 or more advanced training._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait! Been busy with being newly wed and getting a job and basically fitting into an entirely new culture that it kind of killed my inspiration. That said, if you had something in particular you wish to see let me know in the comments :D


	9. Academy 3

**[X] Tsukimi tries to change the future she knows from the manga by telling someone about it. SAKUMO (7)**

**[X] Basic fuinjutsu. You learn how to make basic storage and explosion seals - the foundation of all seals.**

**[X] Advanced agility training - You dodge, evade and parry fast. You are able to use the environment to your advantage by bouncing off them. You can move as fast as a freshly graduated genin.**

* * *

To be perfectly honest, Tsukimi wasn’t very sure where she was walking to. Kakashi’s scent went towards the genin training grounds. She knew she wasn’t allowed to step foot in there unless authorised. No one wanted to be liable for a civie’s injury. While she is an academy student and is treated mostly as a non-civilian, she doesn’t have a headband and shinobi ID yet and legally is a civie. 

She’s not very certain about it. Vaguely in her patchwork memory, Tsukimi remembers a part of conversation regarding this. She remembers it being serious but not which part of it.

She meanders down the road, following her brother’s scent. Kakashi would probably smell her and find her before she gets into trouble. He’s a bigger mother hen that the comics made him out to be, bet Kishimoto— 

Tsukimi stops. 

Comic? Kishimoto? 

Her hair flutters, leaves rustling in the breeze. She turns back, taking in the scenery properly. Trees shade the pavement, buildings rising up to five or six floors line the horizon, but there aren’t that many. Not as many as she was used to.

She was Evelyn, she is Tsukimi.

Forbes. Canon. Yellow hair. Kyuubi. Sharingan.

“You!” 

She spins around in shock. It felt like she was about to hit an epiphany when the voice jolted her out of her thoughts. 

_Sharingan._

The boy yells, finger pointing at her. “It’s all your fault! Ever since your ‘accident’ now all the kids refuse to talk to me.”

He stomps towards her. “You’re the one who wanted to learn the jutsu, why the hell did I get shit for it?”

His black eyes stare down at her. She recognises this person. Not quite the same as a memory, but an echo of something else but what? Hadn’t she experienced this in the dojo at home too?

Something important, very important.

 _Sharingan._ Red eyes.

“Hey! Brat, I’m talking to you...” His eyebrows furrows, peering at her. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good. I— I think teme is over training ground sixteen— “ 

_Tobi._

A taller man with wrapped skin on one side ghosts over the boy, his black eyes flashed into red, black tomoes spinning at her.

She’s terrified. She knows that he is the villain and he can’t be reasoned with. She should run. Kakashi is in danger! She should— 

She hears a growl, a larger figure leaping forward, putting themselves between the man and her. 

“Papa.” She clings onto the back of his legs, body shaking hard. The man is going to kill Kakashi and then destroy the world. Could Papa even kill a man like that? 

Hands that are strangely comforting, pull her away from Papa. Ensui next to her, glaring at… the boy?

“I told you to stay away from my youngest, Obito,” Papa says.

“I did!

“Then what are you doing here? And don’t tell me you didn’t do anything. Because why else is she scared?” Papa’s volume doesn’t change, but there’s something chilling about it. 

“I didn’t do anything!” says Obito, stumbling away from him. “I saw her, and she didn’t look good and then you appeared! Was I supposed to leave her alone when she looked like she might faint?”

Papa whirls around; her schoolbag, that he had slung the shoulder straps through an arm, smacks Obito on the face. “Is that right, Tsukimi?” he asks. “You can tell me if he was mean to you.”

He would be a threat in the future, something seems to tell her. Tsukimi doesn’t know why or how she knows this. He’s not one yet, not now but the very existence of him could destroy the entire shinobi world. Maybe she is the reason why Obito was a black sheep in canon.

Canon, there’s that word again even though she has no idea what it means.

Her eyes dart to the boy and back to Papa. “He said it was my fault…” she finds herself saying. His eyes darken like the skies before Papa’s raiton jutsu, his lips thin but all he does is nod at her words. 

Papa hoists her up, seating her on his arm and hip. She wraps her arms around his neck and presses her face into the crook of his shoulders.

“Stay away from my family, Obito. If I have to say this again, it won’t be pleasant.”

He turns away. 

“We’ll see you in class,” she hears Chouto say as Papa leaps onto the rooftop. She looks down and sees Chouto waving at her. Ensui beside him staring at Obito. 

When a butterfly flaps its wings… Her very existence have already made changes. She don’t know for sure what they are or even what these thoughts are. Maybe they’re not thoughts but instincts? A random grasp of what the future might hold. Tsukimi is certain that these ghostly figures, the jolt of visions are the future.

That or she is turning insane. She’s not sure which is stranger — that she remembers her past life, or that she’s seeing the future. It almost feels like just as she’s about to settle down into her new situation, life throws her more lemons.

It better be some sage-good lemonade at the end of this because she’s not sure how much she can handle this by herself.

Papa doesn’t say anything until they enter the compound. 

“Little Moon, do you want to tell me what happened?” he asks. He sinks on the dining chair, setting her on the table. 

That she’s going crazy? No thank you.

She looks at her feet sullenly and Papa sighed, cupping her cheeks to make her look at him. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me anything.”

His grey eyes frown at her. There are dark circles rimming his eyes. 

“Even if it sounds crazy?” she asks.

“Even if it sounds crazy.” he replies unhesitatingly. Tsukimi knows that she can undoubtedly trust him.

“It’s not a little kid’s feud, you know.” She looks down at her small hands. “It’s much, _much_ bigger than that.”

“Then the more I should know, right? How can I protect you and the pack if I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I see things,” Tsukimi says as quickly as she can’t, terrified that she’d second guess her decision.

“You see things. And are they—”

“It’s… more than things,” she continues because if she stops, she didn’t think she could say it again. “There’s a bit in me that knows that it’s definitely the future. And when I saw… _him_ I saw that he would one day destroy the shinobi countries. The man he could be. 

“I know it’s crazy and it sounds ridiculous. But I saw— I saw _you_ on the dojo floor. A ghost of you and somehow, I knew that— that— You will go out on a mission one day soon, the third shinobi war will explode from the mission. It’ll be a mission you fail to save your teammates lives and be blamed for the war. And you’ll kill yourself because of it. What they don’t know is that the mission was rigged. The council rigged it. Whether you cleared it or failed it, it would still have triggered the war. The man didn’t want you around. He wanted— “

“Hush.” Papa pulls her into his lap, wipe off tears that she didn’t realise had been trickling down her face. “Papa will never leave you.”

“You did! You will...” she whispers. 

“I won’t.” His grip tightens around her and she rubs her against his jounin vest.

“I saw you in the dojo— “

“You saw me kill myself?”

“I saw your body.”

“If it’s the future,” he says and presses a kiss on the top of her head. “ _If_ things do turn out how you say it does, then Papa promises that he will _never_ do it.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Tsukimi snarls, pushing away from him but he holds onto her tight.

“Papa promises on the honour of the Hatake clan and the blood of my ancestors that I will not kill myself in any way of form,” he says to her, solemnly. 

She turns her arm to her face, scrubbing her tears furiously away with her sleeve. “Don’t lie to me, Papa. A shinobi’s promise is useless if you’re already dead.”

* * *

**There are no choices in this chapter.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Questions for readers**  
>  Do you want me to comment on which comment is the cutoff comment that I counted in? 
> 
> Sometimes it takes me awhile to write them and more people commented which changed what the vote would have won (like this chp), but since I was already writing it, it was already too far along to change it to suit the new vote.
> 
> _P.S: It looks like Tsukimi is going to be a fuinjutsu master sealer when she graduates if no one is going to pick a weapon for her_  
>  P.P.S: Her jounin leader would be a random selection from the proposed choices you'll give in her graduation chp.


	10. Academy 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukimi and Sakumo have difficult conversations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Tsukimi’s Current skill set:**  
>  **STRENGTH:** Academy  
>  **AGILITY:** Advanced  
>  **ENDURANCE:** Academy  
>  **BALANCE:** Academy  
>  **WEAPONS:** Academy  
>  **CHAKRA CONTROL:** Academy  
> -  
>  **EXTRA SKILLS:**  
>  Basic Fuinjutsu: Basic storage and explosion seals.
> 
> \---  
> My regular beta's been really busy with life (I still love you corryn~!), if anyone is interested in beta-ing my work (grammar checking my work and helping me bounce ideas around), let me know

Sakumo isn’t sure what to think of his youngest's words. Wouldn’t it be more likely that these so-called visions are more like nightmares? Or pieces of memories that she had misplaced during that incident?

He swings his blade, stabbing the air frustratedly. 

It would be easy to simply brush it off. She’s five, barely five. What would she know about missions and the real world? Yet she knew about missions being rigged, about the council. He hadn’t even known about mission rigging until much later in his jounin career and his father hadn’t even bothered to hide the truth about the shinobi world from him.

Sakumo lets his muscle memory guide through the Hatake katas, trying to take comfort from the familiar movements but his mind keeps returning to her chilling words. 

_And you’ll kill yourself because of it._

_The man didn’t want you around. He wanted—_

Wanted what? What did he want and which man?

“Ne Saa-chan, I’m not sure if our katas are supposed to be that stabby… Perhaps it’s time for some remedial classes?” says a smooth tenor voice from behind him. 

Sakumo turns around half-startled, taking in the sight of his third cousin. “Genmai. What are you doing here?”

“And I managed to creep up on the great White Fang. _Shocking._ ” Genmai grins him. “Maybe we should spar for the White Fang title, I’m sure I might be able to live up to it.”

Sakumo sheaths his tanto as Genmai claps him heavily on the back. “You okay? Did something happen to Tsuu-chan again? I could always stare down the Uchiha again if you need to.”

Though looking unremarkable with his short boyish cut and equally unimpressive height, Genmai’s skill was undisputed in spite of his lack of a terrifying title or reputation on the battlefield. After all, dead men tell no tales and if no one survives, no one would know except his teammates.

Motioning to follow him, they walk deeper into the training ground. The grass crunch under his sandals, he hears the branches creak in the wind. There is no one around but them and the wind and the bubbling stream. Still, Sakumo carefully checks with a chakra pulse and a good sniff. 

If Tsukimi have gone crazy, then he would want a chance to fix it before someone finding out,

He looks up to the swaying branches above.

If Tsukimi have unlocked some bloodline limit...

Sakumo couldn’t help but think of all the ways that they might want to or could exploit Tsukimi.

“What do you think of seeing the future?” 

“Like a fortune-teller?” Genmai asks, tilting his head quizzically. “Maa… I’m not sure if I trust those fortune-tellers…” His words are teasing but his eyes are serious. 

“Like a jutsu or a seal… or a bloodline limit,” Sakumo says, letting the gust of wind strip most of his words from his lips.

Genmai straightens at his words. "Are you certain?" 

"No,” Sakumo fiddles with a kunai, swinging it around his finger. “But she knows things that she shouldn't."

"Like what?" 

"Like mission rigging, like the Council." Like things people don't usually talk about or know about until they’re really high up. 

"Could it be the Uchiha?" Genmai suggests carefully. His chakra is tense and taut like a snake prepared to attack. He had always been protective of Sakumo's children since Aya got pregnant with Kakashi.

At least someone would watch over them if… _if_ the worst happens. Sakumo wonders how the him in Tsukimi’s vision could ever kill himself and leave his pups parentless. The present him can’t even begin to imagine it.

Sakumo squats on the stream’s bank, watching the water rise and ebb over the rocks.

"I Don't know,” Sakumo says. “Unlikely." It's almost treasonous to suggest the former and a highly restricted secret for the latter. No matter how stupid Kagami had acted, he wasn't know for loose lips. 

"Then you should get _them_ to see her."

"And risk her mind? You _know_ it's not advised for children her age." Sakumo hissed. 

"Make up your mind and commit to your decision you made, Sakumo. You already said you don't know if what she said was the truth. Do you have proof?" Genmai pauses and Sakumo shakes his head. "So, a systematic deduction is needed. From what you're not saying, I'm assuming what she said was bad. Then _you_ have to decide what you want to do about it. Don't be a fucking tora and sit on the fucking fence."

Sakumo certainly isn't in favour of thinking she's crazy. What kind of father would he be if he had encouraged her to talk to him only to shove her away? 

“You've decided then.” Genmai says, watching him.

Sakumo can never hide things from Genmai. 

"Shall I arrange a meeting with the Yamanaka's Ino-something?"

“Just because I choose to believe her doesn't mean I'm going to throw her to the tigers." Sakumo says through gritted teeth. "I promised myself that I wasn't going to copy my father.

"This and that isn't the same. Ojisan only pushed you through promotions when he saw you had the skills for it. Your pup has somehow seen the future. That's an explosive seal, not a tanto."

Sakumo forces himself to breathe slowly and not rage. Genmai had good points. Good points from a shinobi perspective, Sakumo on the other hand was trying to do what was best for his pup. He would burn Konoha down if he thought it would keep them safe.

“I will ask her. And _if_ she decides to, then I will ask you to arrange for a meeting. If not, we will keep this a secret between us," he says firmly.

Genmai snorts. "If it’s the future she sees then the more—" 

Sakumo punches him into a nearby tree. " Whatever happens next, I'll already have to defend her against outsiders. Don't make me need to defend against my own clan." He snarls, his canine teeth elongating in response to his rising adrenaline. 

“Don’t worry. I understand,” Genmai says, wrapping a hand around Sakumo’s bicep, pulling his arm across Sakumo’s shoulder. 

Wind shrieks through the trees, bending the branches to its strength. The leaves seem to shudder in its rage. 

A bad omen, Sakumo thinks. He’s possibly the only parent in Konoha that isn’t excited about their pup possibly gaining a bloodline limit

He pushes himself away, helping Genmai up. He’s not even sure how Tsukimi could have gained it. Aya was a pure Nara and his mother had been a pure Inuzuka. Neither of them had seer seeing powers. 

“Speaking of which,” Genmai says as he brushes the bits of bark off his uniform. “I came here to remind you that isn’t Tsuu-chan five already? It’s almost time for her to pick her clan speciality.”

“ _Fuck,”_ Sakumo swears. “I’ve been so busy, I forgot.”

Genmai shrugs. “That’s fine. Just send her to the main house any time. We’ll train her… or rather Karasuki nee-chan will.”

“I will. 

“Chin’s up. I’m sure it’ll work out.” Genmai gives a wryly grin and waves goodbye before disappearing in a flurry of leaves. 

Now if only his youngest would to talk to him again.

✥.✥.✥

Tsukimi refused to say anything even with Kakashi needling her for a reason. Papa had brushed her words off even when he had asked her to say it. Deep down, she knew Papa hadn’t believed her. While she was mentally an adult and could understand where he was coming from, Tsukimi’s body was a child with child responses.

She dodged Papa with persistence, stayed silent even when he tried to speak to her. Kushina allowed her to hang around her apartment to practice seals under her stern eye. Sometimes she allowed her ‘just-a-friend’ Minato watch her when she to leave. ‘Just-a-friend’ Minato was happy to do it because apparently teaching her seals counted as a portion of getting his Seal mastery. 

“Now this symbol here...” Kushina points to the dragon king symbol. “Usually represents a locking mechanism. Most sealers would often use this as part of their storage seal—” 

“You said _usually._ Does that mean not everyone does it? If they don’t, then what do they use?”

“Well… when you get to a certain mastery, you usually begin to develop your own… language? Short-forms and whatnot, which—”

“You mean to say that any symbol or language works fine as long as you’re _thinking_ it while you write it?” 

Would that work for the greek and latin language? An indecipherable seal…

Kushina knocks Tsukimi on her head with her knuckles and she blinks at Kushina. “Tsukimi-chan…” she smiles widely. “You will _never_ write seals without supervision by Minato-kun or me, until you pass your novice test, understand?” 

She leans close and pinched Tsukimi’s cheeks. “ _Never._ Understand?”

“Mumphgfffg—” Tsukimi mumbled. She just doesn’t need to be caught, she thinks and nods. 

“Good. And just so we’re clear, if I catch you, hear about you doing writing or using seals without supervision from Minato-kun or me, we will cut you off. Seals are very dangerous. A badly written seals is more likely to explode than simply not work.” 

Tsukimi nods furiously and satisfied, Kushina resumes inking her stack of seals.

Tsukimi doodles some ideas for a storage seal. Maybe she could write them out in pencil, seals after all need to be infused with chakra and pencils are definitely not— 

If she includes the greek symbols like the alpha and beta… or maybe have the seal in entirely mathematical form… what about simple illustrations? Aren’t kanji all logograms? Seals are basically the inscriptor pressing their will into chakra, it couldn’t be that simple. She’s definitely missing something. 

“Ah Sakumo-sensei, I could have walked her home.”

Tsukimi looks up. Papa is hovering awkward at the door. 

_Men are always like that, doing something stupid without thinking through or not getting the finer social naunces only to fuck things up,_ the remains of Evelyn quietly seem to say. 

If she doesn’t let him try to make up for it, then she’s basically letting herself lose him earlier than he’s already destined to die.

She collects her stationery, neatly slotting her exercise books back into her bag when Papa half-squats next to her table, putting him eye level with her. 

“Are you ready to go?” Papa asks. 

No backing out of this, she tells herself and nods. Papa slings her bag over a shoulder and holds out his hand. His face almost lights up when she slides her hand into his and waves goodbye to Kushina. Though considering how she refused his hugs and any form of contact with him, his reaction isn’t too surprising. Perhaps it had been a little cruel, considering they had quite a few canine aspects.

They walk most of the way home in silence until they round the bend where the road hits the training ground street.

Papa leads her to a tree off the road, patting the ground next to him as he takes a seat. “Tsukimi-chan… Can we talk about what you told me last week?” 

“What is there to say? You asked me to tell you even if it sounded crazy then brushed it off when I did.”

He sighs. “Maybe we saw things a bit differently.”

“A _bit—?”_

Papa tugged her into his lap when she refuses to take a seat next to him. “What I saw was if I knew what was going to happen, I could take steps to fix it. For example, if it’s a rigged mission, then I’d make sure that the war happened the way Konoha happened with my teammates knowing exactly is going on. Rigged missions do happen commonly enough, though it’s a bit questionable why in your vision, we weren’t told about it...” 

He brushes her hair and she lets herself sink into his embrace, finally taking a long smell of her pack leader. The distance had clearly affected her more than she had expected. 

Tsukimi wondered if this was why Kakashi became so different after his father’s death canonically. Had it been the lack of pack scent?

_Canon._

That word again. Is there a reason why she keeps thinking of that word? Hadn’t she also thought that she wasn’t surprised that Kakashi’s teammates hadn’t lasted? 

“Would you tell me more?” he says after a while.

Tsukimi hums thoughtfully, leaning her back into his chest, kicking her feet over his knees. “I’m not sure if I fully understand it either,” she eventually says carefully. “They feel like bits and pieces.”

“Like I’m in bits and pieces,” she murmurs very quietly to herself.

“Then… let’s figure them out together. Start with what we have and figure where they fit.” 

They let the sunlight shift across the grass, dappling them with patches of sun. 

“Papa…” She runs her hands over Papa’s large, warm hands, tracing his palm lines. 

“Hmm?”

“About Obito…” She turns around to look properly at Papa. She needs a privacy seal that can sense Zetsu again and although she has no idea who or what Zetsu is, it’s strangely important, right next to Papa’s death. “The war…”

Tsukimi shakes her head, casting her head down to her sweaty palms. “No… It’s not because of the war. Something happened. Obito he went crazy. No… Rin. It’s _Rin,”_ she whispers the last part, finally connecting it. “Nii-san’s final genin team will be Obito and _Rin._ When Rin dies, Obito will go crazy… because… he… got caught by an enemy-nin? I’m not sure… I just know he disappears, and things happen.”

“Is he the man who will one day destroy the shinobi countries?”

_A large crimson moon above her weeping blood. It blinks. A line bisects the night sky like a scar across an eye. The buildings burning beneath a large fox. A man in red armor stands on the top of the cliff, his thick black hair sways in the wind. Dead bodies surround the cliff._

“The Fourth Shinobi war,” she says. “No one survives.”

Papa holds her tight. “We’ll fix this.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Over next one year, select two projects Tsukimi should work on:***  
>  ~~[ ] Advanced agility training - You dodge, evade and parry fast. You are able to use the environment to your advantage by bouncing off them. Your speed is now 3/5.~~   
> _[This option is closed until genin graduation and with either weapon, ninjutsu or taijutsu specialisation selected.]_
> 
> [ ] Strength training - You want to punch and kick harder. (proceeds up to being able to use strength based weapons and katas)
> 
> [ ] Endurance training - You want to outlast. (proceeds to being able to fight and train longer)
> 
> [ ] Cardio training - You want to outrun. (proceeds to being able to run and train for longer periods) 
> 
> [ ] Balance training - You want to be able to stay on your feet at all times. (proceeds to specialised weaponry and katas)
> 
> [ ] Weapons handling (proceeds up to weapons training)
> 
> [ ] Basic fuinjutsu level 2. You learn how to modify your seals. You learn barrier seals. 
> 
> [ ] Basic chakra control - All academy students start with this. How else would they get good with jutsu? 
> 
> _* Last foundation skill choices. Tsukimi graduates in 1 year._
> 
> **+1 Bonus Hatake Skill choice:**
> 
> [ ] Basic clan tanto training
> 
> [ ] Basic clan blade training (this includes tanto/kunai/katana/sabre/jian/spear.) _  
> Clearing this path opens Tsukimi's path to Konoha's weapon master.  
>  [CAUTION] This choice would take 4 times longer to complete than regular skills.  
>  [CAUTION] This path cannot be cleared until jounin rank. _
> 
> [ ] Specialised clan sensor training  
>  _This choice would unlock sensor specialisation._
> 
> [ ] Specialised clan agility training  
>  _This choice would unlock the [HIDDEN] [HIDDEN]_
> 
> [ ] Specialised clan katas 
> 
> **[HIDDEN CHOICES]**  
>  Choose Tsukimi’s genin teacher:  
> 
> 
> Choose Tsukimi’s genin team:  
> 
> 
>  **Further Notes**  
>  I've updated the "how to play" and "choices" part. Hidden choices would be blacked out and revealed later so people know what the other options were. It's a roulette!


	11. Genin 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chp 10's hidden choices**  
>  Choose Tsukimi’s genin teacher:  
> 
> 
> Choose Tsukimi’s genin team:  
> 
> 
> WeLL. I know it was a random choice, but I hadn’t expected for both choices to not get a Nara or one relating to a Nara. In retrospect I probably should have give less choices

**[13 ] Basic fuinjutsu level 2. You learn how to modify your seals. You learn barrier seals.**

**[14 ] Basic chakra control - All academy students start with this. How else would they get good with jutsu?**

**[13 ] Specialised clan sensor training**

**7( E ) Higure - OC**

**7( C ) Shiranui Genma, Might Gai**

* * *

Kakashi toes his sandals off, mindful of the mud that had caked down his calves as he pads across the living room and into the kitchen. 

“Imouto?” 

She looks up from her doodling. “Nii-san?”

There are weird symbols all over her paper. “Where’s Otousan?” he asks, giving the symbols a hard look. He’s never seen symbols like it before, though somehow, they look like a seal? Kakashi’s certain that people use _kanji_ for seals and he’s a hundred percent certain that if that’s a seal, she shouldn’t be doing it without Kushina-nee’s supervision.

“He went to discuss training with Genmai-ji,” she says as she carefully stacks her papers together. 

“Training…” Kakashi reaches over and looks carefully at her papers. “What kind of training?”

“What do you think I should take?” She tries to take the paper back, but he pulls it away.

Definitely a seal. Minato-sensei is going to be _so_ pissed when he finds out she’s been drawing seals without supervision again.

“What about sensory?” he hums. He had that training too when he was four. He never did quite have the gift for it like Otousan did. 

She nods. “I’ll do that then.”

Kakashi ruffles his sister’s hair. “And I’m telling Minato about you drawing seals without supervision.”

Minato-sensei had drilled him about the dangers of unsupervised seal drawings. Loss of fingers would be the _least_ of his worries apparently. Kakashi thinks of the day that she had woken up. That look still haunts him from time to time - the look that where she couldn’t recognise him.

Two years later, the look she would give him before the whole Obito chakra thing never came back. Imouto no longer looks at him with large adoring eyes. 

He hadn’t known how much he liked it until he lost it. Kakashi won’t let himself lose another thing again. 

✥.✥.✥

Tsukimi is six when she graduates. She gets no say in it, Papa gets no say in it and Kakashi doesn’t know what to say. 

Tsukimi is placed on a team who is much older than her. Shiranui Genma is eleven and it’s his second team. Might Gai is ten and have teeth that sparkles, and she has no idea how he does it.

It’s in training ground twenty-three that they meet their jounin instructor. A man who is skinnier than anyone Tsukimi’s ever met. Higure-sensei runs a weary hand through his dark grey hair and sighs. His cold blue eyes seem to figure them out in seconds and put them in tiny boxes. 

“Upfront...” he says very slowly in a voice that seemed too high for a man. “I don’t want a team... I do not specialise in anything you will take part in until you’re sixteen... I do not specialise in anything that you already do on your records...”

He rolls up his sleeves and takes a seat. “Unfortunately…” Higure-sensei sighs again. “I can’t refuse it. War has taken a toll on Konoha, all jounins have been assigned a team… I… am a _terrible_ choice for all three of you… Unless either of you decide to go into seduction information gathering or perhaps are non-binary. Whichever… I will try to trade off another jounin that might fit you better...” he trails off, seemingly speaking more to himself than to them and nods.

“Yes. I will do that… in the meantime!” Higure-sensei smiles a small smile. “Let’s do some introductions. I’m Higure, orphan, no clan name. You may refer to me as Higure, Higure-sensei, Sensei, they or them. I like green tea in everything and woodcarving.”

They point at Genma. “Now you…”

Genma merely rolls the senbon in his mouth. “Shiranui Genma. You may call me Genma, him or he. No chan, no kun and most certainly not Gengen. My clan and I specialise in senbon. I like making art from senbon and pumpkin broth.”

“Yosh! I am Might Gai! I love running and training! I love super spicy curry!” 

They turn to her and she quivers at Gai’s intense look. “You are my Rival’s younger sister! I can see you are bursting with youth too!”

“I am… Hatake Tsukimi. You can call me Tsukimi, Tsukimi-chan, she or her. I… like writing seals and curry udon with lotus roots?” 

“I’ve never had that before! I must try it!” Gai beams at her. “Higure-sensei! We must have a team meal together!”

Higure-sensei hums. “I don’t see why not...” They look up at the sky and shrugs. “I think we can go to an Akimichi restaurant... They should have a wider variety of foods to pick from…”

✥.✥.✥

Higure-sensei says that their taijutsu is abysmal, but they quite literally beat Gai into the ground during training. Tsukimi thinks their sentence should have been corrected to ‘my taijutsu is abyssal _for a jounin’._ Papa told her that information gatherers are frequently far out from backup in order not to alert their mark. Taijutsu is often their rice and miso of their skillset. Apparently Higure-sensei is one of the best information gatherers. 

Tsukimi finds that she enjoys the slow pace that Higure-sensei seems to set. They’re not like most jounin who seem to go from mission to mission, place to place. Higure-sensei often reminds Gai to pace himself, to learn to become one with nature. 

“Patience is a requirement to be a shinobi...” they remind them as they practice lying motionless. “There will be missions where you will have to stand still for hours... or where you have to wait days in camouflage for your mark.” 

Higure-sensei circles them, their eyes carefully watching them. “There will be chuunin border patrols where you have to move so slow to be undetected... that it will take you hours to cross a kilometre. Pace your breath Genma-san... Your senbon is twitching...”

“Ahhh I give up!” Genma groans and pushes himself off the ground.

“Looks like... Tsukimi-san has won… She gets to pick lunch again.” 

“Can we go back to Hashi’s?”

Gai jumps up and hooks an arm under Genma’s. “Yosh! Let’s race there!”

“Gai-san, _no._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **+1 Bonus skill added: Cunning persuasion.**  
>  Mark will not realise they have been persuaded into doing something.  
>  **  
> Select one choice:**  
>  [ ] Sakumo decides to confide in Jiraiya  
> [ ] Sakumo decides to confide in Orochimaru  
> [ ] Sakumo decides to confide in Shikato (Shikaku’s father)  
> [ ] Sakumo decides to confide in nobody. He will deal with changing the future alone.
> 
>  _Bonus event:_  
>  Sakumo is assigned a mission. This is quite possibly ‘The Mission’ that Tsukimi has mentioned.  
> [ ] Sakumo decides to back out from the mission. (doing this will cost a loss of trust from shinobi forces)  
> [ ] Sakumo decides to go (doing this will cost a loss of trust from Tsukimi that might never be recovered)
> 
>  **Other notes:**  
>  This chapter is pretty lackluster. I couldn't get it to cooperate with me so I just gave up and pushed it out. Sorry, things are pretty hard for me right now, I recently lost someone to covid-19. Stay safe and healthy. Stay at home if you can.


	12. Sakumo 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **There are important author notes at the end of this chapter, do make sure to read them!**

**[ 9 ] Sakumo decides to confide in Shikato (Shikaku’s father)**

**[ 12 ] Sakumo decides to back out from the mission. (doing this will cost a loss of trust from shinobi forces)**

* * *

“It’s an SS rank. No one else but your team can do it.” Sandaime looks at Sakumo with a grave look on his face.

_You will go out on a mission one day soon, the third shinobi war will explode from the mission._

Sakumo clenches his fist behind his back. If it hadn’t been for his youngest’s words, he would have accepted it. A high stakes mission is nothing special to Sakumo and his team. He’s called Konoha’s White Fang for a reason. His team has never failed a high-risk mission even against overwhelming odds. 

“It’s a suicide mission,” Sakumo says, testing the Hokage. Sandaime has never failed to tell whether it’s a rigged mission. After all, the knowledge of it being rigged or not can change the outcome. 

“No more special than all your others,” Sandaime replies. 

So, either Sandaime doesn’t know, or he isn’t saying it. Disappointment fills Sakumo. If it’s the former, then the Council cannot be trusted. If it’s the latter, then Sakumo isn’t sure if he can trust any of the Upper levels anymore. The Hatake Clan had settled in Konoha after being betrayed by then newly founded Kumo. Given their loyalty in return for a safe den. 

Sandaime slides the folder to him. “I cannot stress how important this mission succeeds.”

_Whether you cleared it or failed it, it would still have triggered the war. The man didn’t want you around._

The man. Sakumo had never gotten around asking Tsukimi about him. Why hadn’t the man wanted him around? Sakumo would have to ask his youngest when he gets back home. The only way he’s going to keep his pack safe is that he knows every current enemy out there. He looks down at the folder. Sakumo has never refused a mission. It had been part of the code of honor his father had drilled into him. Protect the pack, protect the village. He remembers the look of distrust Tsukimi had given him even as he promises her the most serious promise he could ever make as a shinobi, the snarl in her voice as she rejects it. 

This must be the mission she had talked about. If he went on this mission, Tsukimi may never trust him again. 

He looks up at the Hokage. He doesn’t have to think about it. His pack will always come first no matter the sacrifices he has to give up for. 

“I apologise,” Sakumo says even though his shinobi training demands he backs down and accept it. “I have to refuse this mission.”

“You’ve never refused one. Not one as critical as this.” Sandaime weaves his fingers together and stares at him with a scrutinizing look. 

Sakumo feels his intent pressing down on him, testing his resolve. “As you are aware, Tsukimi had a chakra accident.”

“Two years ago. Both your children have graduated and have their assigned jounin-sensei.” That Sakumo has literally no excuse to refuse is implied. 

“Yes. That would be true under normal circumstances.” He’s aware that there’s no real good excuse to refuse a mission this critical. “But in the last two years, it seems that Tsukimi has started to develop a secondary bloodline limit,” Sakumo says, lies burning through his teeth like acid.

“A secondary bloodline limit?” Sandaime blinks in surprise.

“Yes. We are not aware of what it is yet and I’ve been working with her closely.” Though Sakumo is eighty percent certain her foresight can be classified as a bloodline limit, if the upper levels cannot be trusted, then he cannot trust them with his pack.

“And what do you think this bloodline limit is?”

Sakumo dregs all the memories of Kushina and Mikoto talking about their bloodline limits. “I believe it’s more mental than physical. I am not very certain enough to talk about it yet. However, if I were to leave at this stage, then the last two years might have been wasted in vain,” he hedges. 

Sandaime purses his lips and exhales heavily. “Very well. Your refusal has been noted. Dismissed.”

Sakumo makes his way out of the Hokage tower. He’s not sure how his refusal is going to affect him and the Hatake clan. If there’s sabotage intended for his removal, then Sakumo is certain that there would be some defamatory gossip about him soon. He won’t be able to handle this alone.

✥.✥.✥

Papa is waiting for her in the living room when Tsukimi gets home from team training. The look on his face isn’t good. 

“I was assigned a mission,” he says. 

Tsukimi stares back up at him, heart thumping furiously in her chest. “Are you… going?” 

He crouches and pulls her onto his lap, tucking her in. “I refused it.”

She grips his vest. “You’re not going?”

He shakes his head. “I have a friend,” Papa says hesitantly. “He’s a great strategist. One of the greatest minds of my generation. Although his son, Shikaku quickly replacing him. Would you be okay with telling him about these things you see?”

“Nara Shikaku?” Tsukimi glimpses a tall, dark skinned man with two angry scars across his face.

“You know of him?” Papa looks at her, perplexed.

“Tall, dark skinned, brown hair and two angry scars across his face. Shogi genius—”

“Well… he hasn’t got the scars yet…”

 _Trust,_ Evelyn seems to nudge.

“He’ll be the best Jounin Commander ever,” Tsukimi tells him. “We can trust him.”

Papa just stares at her with a look she can’t decipher then sighs. He lifts her up onto his hip and slides open the door to the engawa. There are two Naras lazing on the engawa. The older one raises his hand in a languid wave. “Hello. I’m Shikato and that’s my son Shikaku.”

Shikaku raises his fingers in a form of mini wave. His face is still young and as Papa had said, is scar-free.

“So Sakumo says you mentioned a man that didn’t want him around? Do you know who this man is?” Shikaku asks, just as blunt as Ensui had been. Tsukimi wonders if it’s a Nara trait.

She nods and whispers, “he’s… Shimura Danzo.”

Shikato turns slowly to Papa and the two Naras sigh loudly. “Troublesome,” they both mutters.

✥.✥.✥

It’s no coincidence, Sakumo decides. An urgent mission that comes in when only his team is on standby at the Jounin Lounge just after he refused a rigged mission? 

He flattens his lips and signals his team to ready themselves for the worse. They straighten at his instructions. 

“It can’t be _that_ bad, Taichou?” Shiranui Hanabi asks when they’re out of Konoha.

Sakumo scents the air for eavesdroppers before replying. “I refused a rigged mission.” The team startles at his words. 

“You’ve never refused one before,” Hyuuga Makoto says.

“No. But that was before I found out that someone wants to get rid of us.”

They leap through the branches in silence. Sakumo knows they had picked up his subtle message. Sakumo trusts his team with his life, but Shimura Danzo is a council member. He’s not so sure if he can trust them with politics, or even the possibility of him going against Shimura. 

To do so is treason.

He needs to be sure that they would fall on his side if things go down politically bad. 

“Can we trust this source?” Makoto eventually says. 

In all honesty, Sakumo isn’t sure about the things Tsukimi sees. The very idea that someone can see the future is ridiculous. A rank far beyond SSS if it were true. She saw accurately of all the things that had passed. Words spoken that he knows Tsunade had never told anyone too apart from him. 

Sakumo will be the first of her visions to come. 

“Yes.”

Makoto dips his head. “Then let us prepare for someone attempting to assassinate us.”

Kouhaku Kira bursts out laughing at his words. “You say like people usually don’t.”

“Well people usually don’t have our full details, do they?” he sneers.

“I’m pretty sure that team in Kumo had our profiles,” Hanabi chips in.

“You say that because they knew you had the Uzumaki chains in spite of being a half.”

They drop from the trees as they approach the border of Kawa. Makoto swivels his head up, his veins of his byakugan bulging out. “ _Contact!”_

Hanabi swerves, narrowly dodging the myriad of ninja wire. “How did we miss them!?”

Sakumo leaps forward. His tanto unsheathed, his white chakra rips through them like softened miso. There are too many of them. How had they managed to stay hidden from both Makoto’s byakugan and his senses?

“Orders, Taichou!”

He…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **BEFORE I GIVE YOU THE CHOICES, PLEASE READ THIS.**  
>   
>  Full skill progression and stat list are currently available on Discord.  
> As the choices in the following chapters would be tricky, I highly recommend people joining discord to discuss them before putting their votes down.  
> Also, people on discord get additional secret votes/rolls and plot choices.  
> You can join here: https://discord.gg/8qMGVrg
> 
>   
> Okay, now choices.  
>    
> **Select one choice:**  
>  [ ] Stand and fight, the team is capable of defeating them.  
> [ ] Orders to capture some of them alive for interrogation.  
> [ ] Orders to capture them, but prioritises he and his team’s safety over capturing them  
> [ ] Retreat into an ambush  
> [ ] Retreat  
> 


	13. Genin 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to breath a sigh of relief, cause I did. XD Sakumo's death is narrowly averted. :) Had 'stay and fight' and 'retreat' won, it would have led to Sakumo's death.

**[ 10 ] Orders to capture them, but prioritises he and his team’s safety over capturing them**

* * *

Sakumo pulses his orders through his chakra as he stabs one through the torso, “Secondary. Capture alive. Priority stay alive.”

HIs team pulses back affirmative and Hanabi rips one apart with her chains. Brutality, widespread destruction, frontline combat is something his team became famous for. Team Shijin had gotten them names from the fields of Second Shinobi War.

He channels his chakra into his tanto and looks straight into the shinobi that looks to be in charge of them. 

“Little mice forgotten us, eh?” Sakumo say as his tanto lights up, cackling loudly.

Their uniforms look like Kiri black ops, right down to their sandals, but there’s something that they hadn’t gotten right. Kiri black ops always have a Kiri swordsman leading. It’s an easy thing to miss especially when all Kiri black ops have swords that look exactly alike. 

He fought so many of all the black ops from various countries that he knows, it’s hard pull one over his eyes. And honestly? 

He raises his tanto and grins. 

If he hadn’t known it was Shimura Danzo, he might not have seen the treachery for what it really is. 

“Let me remind you why my bingo page is flee on sight,” Sakumo says then flickers so fast that all they see is his afterimage. Blood curving like a crescent moon as it splurts from their bodies. 

Almost poetic, Sakumo thinks. That his title of the Kouryuu had been born while fighting Kiri and perhaps, _if_ it’s really Danzo, that Danzo is trying to rip his title away with Kiri. 

He vaults over a Kiri-nin, slicing through their throat as he does. One of them charges in. Sakumo deflects his sword and kicks him away. A wind blade from his right takes the Kiri-nin out. Kira dashes forward from his right and slaps her hands together, releasing another wind blade that shears through the Kiri-nins.

Sakumo has little finesse in keeping enemies alive. He trusts his back to Makoto and Hanabi, trusts that they would keep a few alive long enough for interrogation. 

And if it’s Danzo making his move like Tsukimi said he would, Sakumo hopes that Shikato and Shikaku would hold up their side of their bargain.

✥.✥.✥

Shikaku wags his fingers at Tsukimi as she departs from her team’s training ground.

“Shikaku-san? What are you doing here?”

“We’re meeting Chouza at the yakiniku place.”

Tsukimi looks up at him. There was something off about him. Was it because he was introducing her to Chouza?

Ever since Papa had introduced her to the Naras, one of them would pick her up. Tsukimi liked Shikaku, she trusted him just like Papa trusted Shikato. Unlike Genmai-ojisan, Shikaku took her seriously. They had helped her piece the individual parts together and though they did not still have a lot of the pieces, like when Root was founded, the ones they did were not good. 

Shikaku ambled beside her. There was nothing wrong with his mannerism, but something is still not quite right.

She stops and Shikaku stops two steps later, turning around with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey Shikaku-san?” She rocks on her heels, discreetly placing her hand near her kunai pouch. “I was thinking about your scars…”

Shikaku had half-jokingly demanded to be the first to know when she figured out how he would get his scars.

“What scars?” Shikaku replies and a frisson of fear scuttles down her back. 

Whoever this is, it isn’t Shikaku.

“We talked about your facial scar the other time and I’ve been thinking about it…” she says, subtly channelling chakra in her nose to scent for any allies around.

If this is an imposter, then where is the real Shikaku?

She had let herself be lured into an empty area. 

“And?” he drawls. 

He takes a step closer to her and Tsukimi calculates how far she would get if she turned to run. Not very far at all. Assuming he had taken Shikaku down, who is currently a B-rank jounin, she being a C-rank genin would get nowhere.

“Oh ho,” he bends down at her, a smirk crawling across his face. “Danzo is right. You _do_ have a lot of potential. Potential that would be wasted under a no-name shinobi.”

“Who are you?” Tsukimi asks, taking a step back, but he matches her step for step.

“I’m no one important _yet_.” He reaches out to grab her and suddenly she’s thrown backwards. A heavy green vest with deer skin hanging over the shoulders appears in front of her. Tsukimi recognises this smell even before she recognises the lazy pineapple ponytail.

“I don’t remember having a twin,” Shikaku says lazily. His hands are deep in his pockets and even though he looks nonchalant, Tsukimi knows he’s anything but.

“You just ruined my test…” Shikaku’s twin looks up at the sun and sighs. “Shimura-sama has asked me to pick up and test Hatake-chan. I’m a bit on a time crunch, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just take Hatake-chan—”

“Unfortunately, Hatake- _chan_ is under the protection and guardianship of the Nara Clan while her father is away.”

“I see you’re not going to let me take her away easy and I can’t show up empty handed.” 

Shikaku’s twin leaps forward and Shikaku grabs Tsukimi, tucking her under his arm. His shadow that had pooling around them spikes and his twin ducks, narrowly missing it. 

“Hiro!”

A burst of wind throws Tsukimi out of Shikaku’s arms and she finds herself separated from Shikaku by two shinobi.

“Hello, chibi,” the one with blond hair and a katana says. 

“Don’t worry, just a quick visit,” says the other that has a thick knotty scar across her neck. Probably a ninjutsu specialist, judging from how the scars down her arms seem to stop at her hands. She had taken care to make sure no scarring would interfere with her battle.

The ninjutsu specialist reaches out to grab her and Tsukimi ducks out of the way, slashes her palm.

“Fuck, the chibi has claws.”

It’s time to fight, Tsukimi…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Select one choice only from all the options below. (Please do not pick 1 trait and 1 normal). Adjustments to the choice is not allowed**
> 
> ~~[A] Breaks through his guard~~ [Academy strength check vs Jounin failed]  
> [B] Runs away and screams for help  
>  ~~[C] Runs away and flares chakra for assistance~~ [Not enough chakra control for this option]  
> [D] Fights them though it’s unlikely she’ll win. But it’d buy time for her until Shikaku can get her.
> 
>  **Additional trait options: Fuinjutsu** \- Premade Barrier, explosion, storage quantity (1 each)  
> [E] Use the barrier seal Kushina had given her. It can hold up against a barrage of B-rank jutsu.  
> [F] Use the explosion seal and try to get away.  
>  **Advanced trait options: Agility**  
>  [G] Stay and fight while dodging the best she can.  
>  Unlocks _[Hidden] [Hidden] ___  
> [H] Run and dodge at the same time. She’s fastest in her graduation class and faster than Kakashi. She might succeed.
> 
>  **Further notes:**  
>  Don't forget to join us on discord. There are more polls there.  
> Kouryuu is the Yellow Dragon that's in the middle of the Shijin (Four heavenly gods: Seiryuu, Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu)


	14. Genin 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we can all now breathe in relief that Tsukimi isn't going to become Root.

**[ 8 ] Stay and fight while dodging the best she can.**

**Discord vote:  
+1 to Balance, specialised weaponry and katas unlocked.  
+Secondary element affinity: Water**

* * *

Sakumo looks down at his prisoners. “Hanabi, do you think you can remove that seal on their tongues?”

With just that seal, Sakumo had already known who had sent them. This is exactly what Tsukimi’s visions had shown. The underground army with seals on their tongues, armies filled with shinobi far too young to be in black ops. 

His prisoners look barely twelve. _Twelve._ Even Konoha’s anbu’s cut off age is fifteen and that’s only under very, _very_ special circumstances. 

“I can try,” Hanabi says. She pulls black haired’s tongue and inspects it. 

That one day, Sandaime would allow a barely twelve year old Itachi into anbu disgusts Sakumo. He mustn’t forget the sacrifices to come. It’s almost laughable. That the Third Shinobi war isn’t here yet and he’s already worrying about the Fourth.

“Taichou,” Makoto calls him from where he was checking the dead bodies. “This… is a Hyuuga child.”

Sakumo takes a deep breath and girds his loins. What his youngest had told him had clearly only scraped the surface. He approaches Makoto, professionally ignoring the disgust and hysteria bubbling in his chest and takes a careful look of the ~~child~~ _corpse_ in Makoto’s arm. The enemy is just slightly older than Tsukimi. 

“You knew,” Makoto says flatly.

Sakumo glances across the mountain of bodies that they had been forced to slaughter. Without their fake Kiri black op outfits, they all look so much tinier. Not that all of them had been little children. There had been adults too, just that any justification to kill children, to force children to drive themselves on his weapon sickens him. 

“I did,” Sakumo agreed. It would do no good to disagree, he had to convince his team to fall on his side. 

“How?” Kira asks.

“My source—”

“The one that someone wanted to get rid of us?” 

Sakumo nods. It has to be a coincidence. Let this be a coincidence. If not how is he going to protect his youngest pup? How is he going to protect her from images too gruesome for her age?

“So they’re trustable,” Makoto says. 

“So it seems.” 

“Then what now?”

His shoulders droop and Sakumo runs a weary hand across his face. “We break the seal, we get information from them—”

“I got that,” Hanabi tells them with a languid roll of her shoulders. “Wasn’t that much more difficult that Mito-obaasama’s puzzle game.”

They turn back to Sakumo expectantly. “If someone wants to eliminate of us, and sent all this to us… Then it would likely escalate,” Makoto says.

“That means the _only_ way to break free from them is to get rid of the one sending them,” Kira beams at them, excited to do some stabbing. “No one tries to kill the Shijin! OH! Pity Suzaku isn’t here! Why _isn’t_ he here anyway? Are you two _still_ fighting?”

“Idiot,” Hanabi smacks Kira on the head. “They aren’t still fighting. Their relationship is over.”

“Sounds like they’re secret lovers—”

“Kagami got his kid almost killed.”

“What!? Why am I hearing this two years later?” Kira whines.

“We _did_ tell you—” 

“What is the plan now, Taichou?” Makoto interrupts their bickering with a well-worn look of patience. 

Sakumo opens and closes his mouth several times even times that even Kira and Hanabi fall silent, tense as the silence lengthens.

Can he trust them to stay silent on the Shimura Danzo matter? Sakumo knows that with a Hyuuga child amidst, the Hyuuga clan would likely side with him. Except these things are volatile. Based on Tsukimi’s visions, they would have to ambush Shimura Danzo, build an overwhelming case against him and/or wait for the next Hokage. 

✥.✥.✥

Tsukimi knew that if she ran, there would be no telling if she could find someone to help her or if that someone would even be someone that she could trust. At least here, she would be close enough for Shikaku to help once he was done.

She resolutely tries not to think of the possibility of Shikaku losing or what might happen losing might mean for her.

Instead of the katana strapped to his back, the blondie pulls his kunai out. Clearly he was underestimating her. Tsukimi might be a fresh genin, but she had agility beaten into her by Papa.

Blondie lunges forward and she sidesteps it with as minimal movement as she could. There’s no telling how long Shikaku might take and she didn’t have endurance like Kakashi did. He’s not as fast as Papa is when he practices with her.

Tsukimi can do this.

Blondie tries to sweep her feet out and she leaps just enough to miss it. She swipes her kunai under his arm, barely grazing his skin as he steps back.

She forces calm in her body, forces her lungs to breathe in her set pace. 

She can hold out as long as Shikaku needs. She _has to._

She dodges his three shurikens. Minimal effort, Tsukimi reminds herself. She deflects his kunai and ducks his fist.

“Ha! The itty bitty genin is giving you a run for your money!” Scar neck yells from the side.

Blondie grits his teeth and pulls back, tucking his kunai back into his pouch. This time he unsheathes his katana.

“Sorry, chibi. No hard feelings, eh?” He flickers forward and Tsukimi has barely any time to throw herself to the ground.

He’s much faster now. So much faster that she has to use every bit of her training to dodge his attacks. It doesn’t help much. He scores a line across her chest, then another across her arm.

Spinning on her heel, Tsukimi tries to deflect his shurikens with her own. She misses one and it sinks into her left bicep. She’s tired now. 

Where’s Shikaku?

Her attention slips and Blondie’s kick lands firmly on her solar plexus, driving the wind out of her and she rolls onto the ground.

The two shinobi amble towards her. 

“Like finally!” Scar neck says. There is a seal in Scar neck’s hand. If Tsukimi lays here any longer, she’ll be taken. She might never see Kakashi or Papa again. Never seen Shikaku or the deers. 

She might become like Sai.

She doesn’t know who Sai is, but it’s somewhat important.

Tsukimi forces herself to her feet, her right hand holding tightly onto her kunai. Ignoring the pain in her left, she pulls out the seal that Kushina had given her to copy. She has one chance.

“Hereeeee itty bittttty~”

One chance.

Blondie steps closer. Finally he’s in range. Tsukimi dashes towards Scar neck, dropping the charged explosion seal at Blondie’s feet. 

“Wha—” 

Tsukimi slashes. First slash, second slash. Scar neck ducks and twists, almost keeping up with Tsukimi. Tsukimi increases her speed with each slash. Scar neck now has a multitude of thin, shallow wounds across her face and arms. 

“You little bi—”

_BOOM_

Tsukimi presses forward, her kunai catches deep on Scar neck’s neck. She might be able to get away with it— 

She gasps. 

Her kunai drops from her hand. Blondie’s katana slides through her abdomen. Tsukimi almost falls to the ground had it not been for Blondie’s arm catching her. She tastes blood in her mouth. She failed. She hadn’t managed to catch Blondie in the blast. 

Tsukimi sags in his arm.

“Bitch nearly offed me. You shoulda have taken her seriously earlier, Hiro.” 

“Chibi’s like what four? Would you have taken her seriously too?”

“Bah.”

Black dots dance across her vision as Hiro shifts her under his arm like a sack of rice. Tsukimi wonders if she’s going to die again. Maybe compared to what Danzo might do to her, death might be preferable.

She coughs, blood flecking across Hiro’s pants.

“Put the girl down,” she catches someone saying through the loud beating in her ears. Hiro jostles her. The pain in her abdomen spikes and then she faints.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **C-rank Hidden Upgradable Skill Unlocked:** Please name your skill.  
>  **Description:** A flurry of [selected weapon's level] slashes based 0.5x of [current agility level] against opponent.  
>  _Naming skills: Either suggest a name or comment +1 to the name you like. If a tiebreaker against names is required, a dice will be rolled to see which wins._
> 
>  **Select one choice:**  
>  Sakumo has to decide what to do regarding Shimura Danzo.  
> [ ] Sakumo doesn’t want to trust his teammates with Tsukimi’s secret and completely keeps his teammates in the dark  
> [ ] Sakumo trusts his teammates to a certain extent. He keeps his teammates in the dark about who is behind this, but hints that an Upper level shinobi is the instigator, he doesn’t tell them about Tsukimi.  
> [ ] Sakumo trusts his teammates to a certain extent. He tells them about Shimura Danzo, but doesn't tell them anything else.  
> [ ] Sakumo trusts them wholeheartedly. He tells them about Shimura Danzo and Tsukimi’s abilities.
> 
>  _Bonus event:_  
>  Tsukimi reads more people into her secret to try and change the future.  
>  **Select up to two choices:**  
>  [ ] No one. If this choice is selected. No other choice for the bonus event may be selected.  
> [ ] Hatake Kakashi  
> [ ] Namikaze Minato  
> [ ] Maito Gai  
> [ ] Shiranui Genma  
> [ ] Higure  
> [ ] Nara Ensui  
> [ ] Akimichi Chouto  
> [ ] Yamanaka Inoichi


	15. Genin 4

**Blade Dance:** A C-rank upgradable skill _(Named by HeavensArcher)_ **  
** ** **Description:**** A flurry of [selected weapon's level] slashes based 0.5x of [current agility level] against opponent.  
  


**[ 18 ] Sakumo trusts his teammates to a certain extent. He tells them about Shimura Danzo, but doesn't tell them anything else.**

**[ 28 ] Namikaze Minato**

**[ 23 ] Yamanaka Inoichi**

**Discord vote: +touchseals**

* * *

“Sit down,” Sakumo says wearily. “You’re going to want to be seated for this,” he adds when they don’t take a seat.

“That sounds all sorts of fuckery,” Kira says and plops herself next to Hanabi. 

Makoto double checks the wound on her arm. “You say that as if little children in black ops aren't bad enough.”

“Hey now—” 

“My source says that Shimura Danzo is behind this.”

Kira snaps her jaw shut. For the first time since they left Konoha, the team is utterly silent and still like statues. 

Sakumo himself can’t comprehend how a council member would do this. What goals does he need to have to want a black ops army that he’ll kidnap children for it? Did the Hokage know? And if the Hokage did know, then _why?_ Why have a secret black ops division? If the Hokage and council wanted a war, it would be easy to trigger it without the Shijin’s death. Why did they want Shijin out of the way? 

“You’re fucking with me!” Kira yells. “Why in shodaime’s saggy balls would a sage damned councilmember want us to die?”

“Or want children in their black ops?” Makoto adds. “This does not make any sense. Had it not been for the brand and actual physical evidence, I might not believe this. Truth is, we all saw this. These… _black ops_ … are without a doubt, Konohians.” 

“And the information we managed to get out of them all indicates that it is a high ranked authority,” Hanabi says. “It won’t be far-fetched to think that Shimura-sama could be behind this.”

“So you believe me.” 

“Your source seems to be accurate,” Makoto says. “It would be ill-advised to not accept it for now. Should we consider a protection escort for your source?”

Even if he trusts them from hell to back, Sakumo decides that he can’t trust them with Tsukimi. Sakumo glances at Kira who seems to be the only who is not taking things very well. In the future Tsukimi saw, his teammates had blamed him for the war. Sakumo didn’t know how the mission had gone in that future. What kind of things that must have happened for that to happen?

Sometimes all it takes is a spark. 

“So, what is our next move, Taichou?” Hanabi asks.

“We bury the bodies… we complete our mission and we make sure to stay in touch with each other. There’s no saying that there might be another attempt on us back in Konoha.”

“Noted, Taichou,” Makoto and Hanabi says. 

Kira just stays silent. 

Sakumo wonders if this is the spark.

✥.✥.✥

Tsukimi wakes up to a white ceiling. The last time she woke up here, she had found herself in a body too small for her. Had she wondered if dying would send her back home? Whatever it was, nearly dying hadn’t worked. 

Strangely, the longer she lives here, the less she remembers Evelyn. It’s like she merged or fused together. She still feels older than she should. 

“Tsukimi-chan?” 

She turns her head and sees Minato sitting by her bed. There is another blond-haired man leaning on the window behind him. 

“How are you feeling?”

She blinks at them owlishly, eyes sliding back to the blond-haired man by the window. 

“...Shikaku?” she whispers through cracked lips. Minato hands her a glass of freshly poured water.

“Shikaku will be fine. He just took a beating,” Minato smiles. “It’s a good thing Inoichi was with me when he sensed Shikaku’s flare.”

“Flare?”

Inoichi approaches her and shows her his earring. “We have connected earrings, so we contact each other in case of emergencies that we don’t want the enemy from knowing we requested backup.”

Minato and Inoichi exchange look. “Tsukimi-chan…” Minato activates a privacy seal on her desk. “Do you know why they were trying to take you?”

“I want Shikaku…” she mumbles, pointedly staring down at her blanket.

Inoichi leaves and in a little moment later reappears with Shikaku, an arm in a sling and bandages across his chest.

“Tsuu-chan?” Shikaku calls out as he gingerly sags onto the side of her bed.

She looks at him carefully. The imposter had managed to pull him off perfectly. Had it not been their ongoing jokes about his scars, she wouldn’t have known. But what if he’s an imposter? What if Minato and the other blond man are imposters too? Asking Shikaku about his scar might clue them in.

“Have you finally remembered how I get my scars?” Shikaku says with smirk. “And you said I’ll become the Jounin commander when I have absolutely no interest in being one.”

He squeezes her hand. She exhales in relief. He’s as real as she can test. 

“Sorry Tsuu-chan, I was late because I was ambushed by another shinobi.”

“I thought— They nearly—” She bursts into tears and Shikaku carefully wraps his uninjured arm around her.

“Do you know why they wanted her, Shika?” Inoichi asks impatiently.

Shikaku ignores him and asks her instead, “do you feel like you can tell them?”

She scrubs her tears away with the heel of her palm. “Can you?”

Shikaku looks straight at her, eyes unwavering. “With my life and clan,” he says with the utmost seriousness that she has ever seen him give.

She nods and slowly turns to Minato. Her hand shakes in Shikaku’s grip. Minato’s blue eyes are like Shikaku’s — serious and sincere. He’s Kakashi’s teacher and if the future happens… 

She sees a flash of a man standing on the podium wearing the Hokage’s robes. 

“I see bits of the future. The third shinobi war will start with Papa’s mission failing.”

“And apparently it’s orchestrated by Shimura Danzo,” Shikaku adds.

“Shikaku-san!” she hisses at him.

“I trust them with my life, my clan and everyone precious, Tsukimi-chan. They need information to assist us,” he says. “Sakumo-san was sent out on a mission even though he refused a rigged mission. We’re certain that that mission was assigned by Shimura Danzo. Sakumo-san will report on the accuracy of it when he returns. Otousan thinks that with both of his kids had prodigious skills, he might recruit… _seize_ them for this… Root that Tsukimi has mentioned he has.” 

“... I think I need to sit down for this…” Inoichi says faintly.

“For now… I think with such overt actions, it’s possible that Sandaime has authorised it. Kakashi-kun and Tsukimi-chan might be better staying in the Nara compound.”

“The Sandaime too?” Minato kneads his forehead. 

“We cannot confirm that for now. But it’s probably better to play it safe.” 

Shikaku turns to Inoichi who inclines his head. “I’ll make sure I’ll organise a protection detail of sorts.”

✥.✥.✥

Papa returns two weeks later with the confirmation of Root existence. Tsukimi wonders if the adults in Root had all been children that grew up in Root. To not know anything but Root is terrifying. 

Papa hugs Kakashi and her tightly and tells Kakashi about the sabotage. Kakashi takes it better than Tsukimi thought he would. Wasn’t he only ten? Tsukimi had thought that the idea of someone wanting to kill their only parent to get their hands on them would be too scary. Instead Kakashi just nods solemnly and promises to keep an eye on her.

With Papa and her permission, Minato draws a temporary seal on her back that she can spike chakra in if she needs backup. The seal will not only signal the people with the paired seals, but it would become a sort of honing signal. 

Things are peaceful for a while. 

Higure-sensei teaches them a basic jutsu, a jutsu that Tsukimi has a lot of difficulty picking up. Her chakra control is appalling, according to Higure-sensei and it’s a pity because with her primary affinity being lightning and secondary being water, she had the potential of being a ninjutsu expert. 

Tsukimi isn’t sure if she’s interested in working towards that. Seals are much more fun, she even managed to figure out how to do touch seals. Though doing that had resulted in a two hour long from Minato-sensei and Kushina-sensei separately followed by a look of disapproval from Kakashi.

Then Papa is sent on another mission that he cannot refuse. It becomes a disaster. 

And the Third Shinobi War starts. Both Kakashi and Tsukimi are deployed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **There are no choices in this chapter.**
> 
> I debated adding on so there'll be choices, but I felt that it was a pretty good stopping point. We'll get more choices in the next chapter.


	16. Genin 5

**Voted by discord: Tsukimi remembers everything now and watched Naruto up to shippuden then some.**

* * *

Kakashi scowls at the dark-haired boy beside Minato-sensei. He wondered if Minato was being particularly obtuse or if he sincerely didn’t know that his father had particularly banned Obito from interacting from the Hatake Clan.

“Sensei, did you know Otousan has refused any connection with Uchiha Obito?” Kakashi asks, not bothering to avoid the glare that Obito sends him. 

Hadn’t everything started from him in the beginning? Though Kakashi had grown up with Obito, with the way things turned out, he wasn’t sure if he could forgive Obito. Before, Tsukimi had been shy and quiet, toddling after him over everything. It was true that he had gotten annoyed at her trying to climb the tree to hide with him and giving away his spot during hide and seek. 

Kakashi folds his arms and turns away, trying to hide his discomfort. Regardless of whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was, too, at blame for his sister’s accident. It was just easier blaming Obito about it.

“Ah, I have no say over the administration’s decisions,” Minato says with a slump on his shoulders and presses his forehead against a tree. “Oh no… My girlfriend’s surrogate dad is going to hate meeeeee… Kakashi-kun! Talk to your dad!”

“Why is Obito-kun banned from… interacting with you?” the brown-haired girl asks hesitantly. Kakashi thinks her name is Nohara Rin. He hadn’t been paying too much attention to Minato-sensei’s introduction, having been too busy glaring at Obito.

“Because they’ve all got sticks up their asses!” Obito says.

Kakashi growls and grabs Obito to punch him only for Minato to step in-between them. “Now, now. Obito, _apologise_.”

“No! Why should I? They keep blaming me for the brat’s accident!”

“The brat?”

“You knew full well that imouto wasn’t supposed to channel chakra without supervision.” 

“Don’t tell me you didn’t want her to learn tree-walking either!” Obito huffs angrily. 

“I did. But if you had gotten a chuunin or jounin like I said too, instead of insisting that you could—”

“HAH! SEE!” Obito points at him with smug satisfaction. “Why don’t you get scolded too? Everyone’s treating me like a plague because of—”

“But Obito-kun… Don’t Tsukimi-chan have chakra sensitivity?” Rin says. “Sensei told us that especially chakra sensitive people need to learn to channel with shinobi supervision…”

“What? Didn’t we all do it alone in class too?” Obito says with a pout.

“In class, _with supervision,_ you bastard,” Kakashi says. He steps forward, trying to grab Obito.

“Kids. _Kids._ ” Minato pushes them further apart. “Don’t make me tie you two up.”

“I’m sorry, Obito. It is medically advised to have shinobi supervision for channelling chakra for the first time. For anyone, for that matter. And both of you, no matter how angry you are, you should call each other names. You’re teammates now, whether you like it or not.”

Minato looks at them sternly. “In the shinobi forces, you will inevitably find yourself needing to work with someone you may not get along. Regardless if it’s a personality issue or what not, you are considered adults now. During training and missions, you will need to learn to act professional.”

Kakashi glares at Obito and turns away with a loud sniff. 

✥.✥.✥

Tsukimi isn’t surprised that Kakashi had gotten Obito and Rin for his teammates. Probably, in normal situations, she would have sympathised with Kakashi a little but with things escalating like she saw, things like arguments with Kakashi’s team had to be put out of mind. 

Higure as well as Papa and Genmai had been training her from dawn to dusk. Tsukimi isn’t complaining about it. It gives her the chance to ignore the looks of disgruntled and snide remarks when she walks past them. 

At least she never walks alone now. 

Often it would be Shikaku or his older brother, Shikaneru, fetching her after team training to the Nara compound. They seemed to want to keep her oblivious with the graffiti that many civilians had taken to drawing on their fence. 

Tsukimi isn’t sure _why_ they’re blaming Papa. Especially since the war between Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Sunagakure and Shimogakure had been going on for the last two years. Not continuously, but on and off enough that she’s sure the history books would just lump it together.

Civilians are stupid, she declares it to Papa when he returns with a haggarded look.

“We’ll change it,” Papa says to her when he tucks her in at night. “I promised.”

She wonders if he’s telling her or telling himself. 

It rains that night. It’s the first night in the last two weeks that Kakashi and her are back in the Hatake compound. The first time she sees all her aunts and uncles and elders gather in the main house. They are like Papa, tired and seemingly run thin. Tsukimi realises that while Kakashi and her had been stowed away in the Nara compound, the older Hatakes have stayed in their homes. 

Karasuki-obasama taps her kiseru on an ashtray.

“So what’s our plan?” Monooki-jisan asks. “These shodaime’s saggy balls of civilians are pissing me off so much!” He fiddles with his katana’s hilt. Somehow she thinks that if Karasuki-obasama agreed to killing them, Monooki-jisan would rush out immediately.

It’s only the fragile agreement with Konoha when the Clan had first joined the village that stays their hands. 

“Monooki, there’s children here,” Karasuki-obasama says sharply. 

“Bah. They’re both adults now. Especially Kakashi-kun. He’s got his first pack adjutant already.”

“They’re still both below ten,” Bokusou-obasan says.

Monooki only grunts and folds his arm unhappily. 

Karasuki-obasama takes another long inhale of her kiseru. “Just so we’re clear, otouto, we do not blame you for this. Protect the pack, protect the village. Your team is your pack just like we are.”

“I understand, Neesama.” Papa nods wearily. He runs his hands through Tsukimi’s hair and she leans into him. “The Nara and Yamanaka have started their actions against the civilians. I’m not sure how long it’d take to dissuade them…”

“Is that a clan alliance?” Bokusou-obasan asks. “We haven’t had one since we fled Kumo and settled in Hi no Kuni.”

“Tentative at best…” Papa glances at Tsukimi. “Danzo tried to kill me and take my children.”

“WHAT?” half of the room yells and rises, their hands on their hilts or kunai pouches.

“A lot of the Hatakes had been sent out onto the field, leaving the compound almost barren, so the Naras and Yamanakas have been watching over them,” Papa continues in spite of the rising killing intent.

Tsukimi chokes on the killing intent. “Rein your ki please,” Papa says as he tries to push out positive intent to combat theirs. 

Tsukimi gasps. She sees a crimson moon, a man in red armor stands on the top of the cliff, his thick black hair sways in the wind. Dead bodies surround the cliff. 

Then nothing.

✥.✥.✥

There’s a nine-tail fox standing above Konoha. The entire east section had been destroyed by it. A pastel white man stands in a laboratory surrounded by Anbu. 

_“I trusted you!”_ the hokage says.

_“So you believe him over me.”_

A flash of white, leaving the teams of anbu bleeding onto the floor. One of them pushes his mask aside and Tsukimi recognises him. 

Genma is anbu? Will become anbu?

The vision warps and this time Tsukimi can see shinobis with a musical note and suna attacking Konoha. The destruction is widespread but unlike the fox’s attack, at least there aren’t bodies lining the streets.

How far is this ahead? And why is she seeing this?

Evelyn wakes from her desk with keyboard imprints all over her face. The television is playing yet another episode of Naruto. 

_“I’m going to be the next Hokage! Believe it!”_

A dream? 

No.

Tsukimi wakes and remembers everything. This was a TV series adapted from a manga yet somehow, she’s here. She’s not seeing visions, she’s remembering episodes. She sits up in shock. “ _Fuck,_ ” she swears. She had to force her tongue to curve properly. Even then the english rolled off her mouth strangely, sounding less like an english native speaker but someone just starting to learn their first english words. 

If she changes the things she sees, then wouldn’t it render her visions all moot?

She throws her blanket off, pattering into the kitchen where Papa is setting breakfast. Wouldn’t telling him that she’s remembering a television series from a past life be weird?

Things to worry later, she guesses and climbs onto the chair and digs in.

✥.✥.✥

“Today… we’re having… a special… lesson,” Higure-sensei smiles. “I… will teach you something. But first… let’s start with… what your biggest weaknesses are…”

Gai raises his hand. “I’m too Loud!”

Higure-sensei nods. “That… is quite right… Genma-kun…?”

Genma tucks his hands in his pocket, rocking on the balls of his feet. “I think… my biggest weakness is that if I run out of senbon, I’m screwed.”

They turn to Tsukimi and she licks her lips nervously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Select one option:  
> [ ] - Tell Sakumo, Shikaku and Inoichi honestly about this whole past life and anime called Naruto thing.  
> [ ] - Tell them she remembered more but nothing more.  
> [ ] - Say nothing.
> 
> Select one option:  
> [ ] - Lack of endurance  
> [ ] - Lack of weapons training (that is more than kunais and shurikens)  
> [ ] - Write in your suggestion (and as always, feel free to +1 if you see and like someone's suggestion)
> 
> making choices is hard :( We're going to have some mundane ones for now. Tsukimi is going out for _real_ missions in the next chp. Let's be honest, this chp is kinda of a filler. *cough*


	17. Genin 6

**[ 17 ] - Tell them she remembered more but nothing more.**

**[ 11 ] - Lack of endurance  
**

**Discord vote: Ask Higure-sensei for a camouflage jutsu. (Unlocks Tiger stalk jutsu) wins**

* * *

“Lack of endurance,” she says. 

Higure-sensei nods and claps their hands. “Very good... So we shall split up... and I will teach you new things...”

They run through some hand seals and two clones appear next to them. “They… are shadow clones… You’ll… be getting one each… Except for Genma-kun… Genma-kun… will be with me…”

Higure-sensei’s clone leads her away. “Now… you… will run five rounds of leapfrogs... around the training grounds. I will give you… one hour…”

Tsukimi regrets mentioning her lack of endurance. It wasn’t just five rounds of leapfrogs of training grounds. They alternated between sprinting, push ups, star jumps, leapfrogs and pullups. By the time it was the end of the four-hour team training, Tsukimi felt quite ready to go home.

“You will… continue this for two days… rest one day… and repeat,” Higure-sensei tells her. She nods back, aware of how the war is going to affect them. There is no time for being lazy now. Just as Higure-sensei had told them from the start, the war and taken its toll on Konoha. They were expected to refill the troops. Team Higure might not be sent out to the frontlines yet, but it was only a matter of time. 

Kakashi had already gone one twice to the frontlines, though it had only been a courier mission. Except things wouldn’t be the same for Kakashi and her. Team Higure is clearly not a combat team, Team Minato on the other hand, was a frontline combat team.

Tsukimi clenches her jaw at the vision of Kakashi’s first jounin mission. She won’t let that happen. 

“Now…” Higure-sensei continues and shows her slowly a set of hand seals. “You… are the only one… in this team… that has been able to keep still… and move slowly… This jutsu… is a jutsu I created,” he says.

Shinobis don’t easily hand out their own crafted jutsus, jutsu sharing etiquette had been one of the things rapped into them during the academy. Don’t share jutsus that had been shared by others without the creator’s permission, don’t copy jutsus without permission, don’t copy and modify a jutsu then claim of your own. It had been a full class and exam paper on it.

Higure-sensei completes the jutsu and it’s like the environment swallowed them up. One minute Higure-sensei had been standing in front of her, the next they were gone.

“Higure-sensei?” she calls out, scanning the surroundings. Her nose kept telling her that Higure-sensei was still standing in front of her, but she couldn’t see them.

“Here,” they say, and a hand reaches out to grip her wrist. 

“This is… creepy.” She looks down at the hand that she knows is gripping her wrist but can’t see it. 

“In this… jutsu… it’s… close to a henge… of your surroundings. You will need to… move very slowly. Speed… is one of its drawbacks… but because the chakra required… to cast and maintain… it is… very low… you will be virtually… undetected… if you learn to hide your… heartbeat and scent…”

Higure runs through the hand seals again. “I… call it… the Tiger Stalk…”

✥.✥.✥

“ _They_ are FRESH genins!” 

Tsukimi has never seen Higure-sensei raise his voice or be furious before. It’s almost like the gathering of a thunderstorm.

“She’s a _Hatake_. Aren’t they all ‘elites’?” the mission desk shinobi sneers back. 

Tsukimi feels Higure-sensei’s aura press down on her momentarily then as quickly as it had come, the pressure was gone. Higure-sensei snatches the mission scroll from the shinobi. “I’m glad... I rejected your date…” Higure-sensei turns back to the shinobi, the look of disgust curling on their lips. “Shinobis like you… are too stupid… to think for themselves…”

Higure-sensei sweeps out of the mission office, ushering them out. Their hand that grips her shoulders is tight and almost bruising. Lips thinned; they say nothing even as they march the team through the market.

“Sensei?” Gai asks, his long legs keep up with their stride almost effortlessly. “I thought—” 

Higure-sensei cuts his words with a wave of hand. “Later, Gai-kun.” 

It’s not until they pass through the Akimichi compound and onto Chouza’s porch that Higure-sensei’s shoulder seems to ease up its tension. 

“Higure,” Chouza says as he opens the door. “I thought we agreed after the mission?”

“Yes…” Higure-sensei’s quiver. “They’re… sending the team… out onto… frontline courier…”

“ _What?”_ Chouza takes the scroll that Higure-sensei offers and scans it. “They’re fresh genin! And— and— you’re not even a combat jounin.”

“I know!”

Chouza leads them into the kitchen. 

“They know that!” Higure-sensei slaps the table, almost spilling the cups of tea Chouza had been pouring. “It’s… ridiculous…”

Chouza sighs. “I’ll take over the team from now on.” He turns to the team, and solemnly nods at them. “It was intended that after a few missions with Higure, I’d be transferred to be your jounin-sensei, but things have changed. A ridiculous rumour on how Hatake Sakumo involved Konoha into the war has been circulating.”

Gai and Genma glance at her and she inch downwards in her seat.

“Higure doesn’t have the political power to keep you all safe and I do.” He folds his arms and stares at the boys. “I’ll be clear. It is not Hatake-chan’s fault that this is happening. We believe someone is intentionally sabotaging the Hatake Clan. What for, we don’t know. So we should not and cannot say anything outside of privacy seals. Understand?”

Chouza stares at them until they agree.

“Go home, pack for two months. Make sure you bring some treats you like and something to occupy yourself. Meet me at the North Four Gate at seven a.m.” 

He sets a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Hatake-chan, I’ll walk you back to your father.”

His large stature deterred looks from the civilians. Tsukimi hadn’t noticed how much their looks and whispers had affected her until they were gone. 

✥.✥.✥

Shikaku is in the living room when she’s leaving with her pack the next day. 

“Tsuu-chan,” he says. 

She looks at him. His face is still scar free and clear of the wrinkles she sees in her memories. Kakashi and her had been protected from the war outside. Even if Konoha hadn’t been drawn into the war yet, skirmishes had already been breaking out then. The more she thinks about it, the dumber she thinks of everyone who thought Otousan had started the war. 

She looks at Otousan standing in the kitchen, wiping his hands on his apron. Otousan hadn’t committed suicide. Not yet. Tsukimi wonders if he would be still alive when she gets back home. 

Tsukimi remembers a phrase in a book she read a long time ago. 

_Fate is like a typhoon and she was just a girl standing in its way._

There were many theories on how Fate, Time and paradoxes might happen. Just like there were theories on death and afterlife. She didn’t remember dying, certainly didn’t remember the in-between. Funny how she simply accepted her role in this world when she awoke.

Otousan crouches and pulls her into his arms. His face buried in her hair and she, like him, takes a deep breath of him. The scent of him, her pack leader, calms her. 

She pulls away. Gripping his sleeve, she looks up at him. “You promised, Otousan,” Tsukimi tells him. An inscrutable emotion flickers across his face when she says that, and she can’t help but wonder if he forgot. Let fate be something that isn’t immutable. She hasn’t changed the war or the fact that Otousan has once again taken the start for it. 

“I promised, Little Moon,” he says and cups her face. She knows that Otousan can’t see her off because of his own mission. “Go safe.”

Shima, Otousan’s pack adjutant, bumps his head against her. She steps into the genkan and pulls on her sandals. 

“It starts with nii-san’s promotion to Jounin,” Tsukimi says. “The very mission right after he gets the promotion.”

Otousan purses his lips, eyes flickering to Shikaku. “I’ll deal with it,” Otousan promises.

Tsukimi slings her pack on. Emotions crest in her chest as she looks back at him. Not caring to remove her sandals, she runs and hugs him tight, taking a good long sniff of his scent. It might be her last time. 

“You _promised,”_ the part of her that grew up in his love whispers. 

“Papa promised on the honour of the Hatake clan and the blood of his ancestors,” he swears. “I will _never_ break such a vow.”

“Okay.” She gives him a last look and finally lets Shikaku escort her to the Outer gates.

✥.✥.✥

Sakumo’s mission is dirty and grimy. It sits badly at the back of his mouth and no matter how many times he has had to do it, he will never ever treat it casually. How the Hokage can order his team to massacre an entire village that has nothing to do with the war makes him wonder about the whole system.

Sakumo is the third generation of the Hatakes that had settled in Konoha and though he was young then, Sakumo still remembers why they fled Kumo. The brutality, the cruelty of the Kumogakure had forced them to leave the thunderstorms and their fields in order to ensure Sakumo and their future children would grow up knowing pack and family.

He leans back on the balls of his feet. There’s a streak of blood across his chin, hardly remarkable when his sandals squish from blood.

Hiruzen had never been this cruel. He might have put the safety of the village first, but what would murdering this village that was barely Kiri have to do with the safety of Konoha?

Sakumo turns it over in his mind. He had accepted the mission from an Anbu, that hadn’t been out of the ordinary. Some Anbu-class or A-rank missions have been delivered that way.

“Dinner’s ready,” Kira calls out as she ladles out their portions. 

Something wasn’t right and Sakumo didn’t know what. He should have talked about it with Shikato when he had the chance to.

He digs into his stew, the flavours melding onto his tongue. Kira is still the best cook among them— 

Kira had been the one who handed the mission to him, from the Anbu’s hand to him. Slowly, Sakumo turns to look at her. There is a blank expression on her face, one that he isn’t familiar with. Kira laughed and smiled a lot. 

His fingers shake. 

“Y— you!” Hanabi only manages to say before she collapses. The bowl drops, tipping its contents as Hanabi convulses on the ground.

Sakumo can feel the fire in his blood. 

And Kira stands there, watching. 

_Traitor._

✥.✥.✥

The first week passed uneventfully. Frontline courier missions are just like typical courier missions, except with the _much_ higher rate of meeting high ranked enemies. 

Her endurance and speed had increased with the amount of running they had been doing. In between their breaks, Chouza-sensei instructed them on new katas, katas that were more suited for them, brow beating fight instincts into them with one on one training. 

But, despite Chouza-sensei’s apprehensions. They don’t meet any enemies. In fact, their luck held out for the first month. Maybe this is how most C rank missions go, Tsukimi thinks. She had half expected the mission to go the way all the Team Seven missions in the anime had. 

Tsukimi practices her Tiger stalk jutsu religiously until even Chouza-sensei couldn’t detect her — visually that is. Coupled with the basic academy tracking and hiding lessons, she’s certain that she would be at least able to take _some_ people by surprise. 

And perhaps she had jinxed herself.

It’s not just a high rank enemy-nin they meet in the fifth week. It’s Ay and Bee, and though Bee looks barely older than her, she wonders if he’s already a jinchuuriki. 

Chouza-sensei slides in front of them, his bulk hiding Ay and Bee from view.

"Run!" he bellows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Select one choice only from all the options below. Adjustments to the choice is not allowed.**
> 
> [ A ] Obeying orders are important. Follow Chouza-sensei's orders and flee.  
> [ B ] Stay and fight with teamwork! [Blade Dance locked. Friendly fire might occur.]  
> [ C ] Stay and fight. Use Tiger stalk jutsu to stealth assist Chouza-sensei.  
>  ~~[ D ] Stay and fight. Use ninjutsu to assist Chouza-sensei.~~ [Option locked. No ninjutsu available.]  
> [ E ] **Additional trait option: Fuinjutsu** Throw down a barrier seal and convince Chouza-sensei to flee too.  
> [ F ] **Additional trait option: Fuinjutsu** They're close enough to the outpost that an explosion seal might alert the outpost and bring reinforcements.  
> [ G ] **Additional skill option: Cunning persuasion** Persuade Ay and Bee to let them go.


	18. Genin 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it’s pretty funny, I got stuck on “cunning persuasion” dialogue. The dialogue that I ended up with is neither cunning nor persuasive, but it’s the best I got. So let’s just pretend she said something really cunning and persuasive. If you really hate it, I will consider any suggestions on what the dialogue might be :X I'm not totally happy with this chp, but I dragged it out long enough that I'm just going to finish the darn dialogue and be done with it.
> 
> Also following the stance of japanese names for countries (because calling it Cloud and Fire is kinda weird imo).  
> Hi - Fire

**8 [ G ] Additional skill option: Cunning persuasion Persuade Ay and Bee to let them go.**

**Discord vote: A traitor has been rooted out. Sakumo has to decide what to do with the traitor.  
Winning choice: Get Shima to bring Inoichi to meet him and the traitor at a private spot  
Result for Luck roll for winning choice.  
1) Shima needs to successfully get to inoichi - Luck roll win, Shima succeeded  
2) Inoichi needs to successfully get to the spot without anyone noticing - Luck roll win - Inoichi succeeded  
3) Sakumo needs to successfully bring the traitor to the spot without losing the traitor or being detected, Luck roll lost. Sakumo lost traitor and was detected.**

* * *

Sakumo pushes himself off the ground, lips fixed in a snarl. His limbs are tremblings, nerves are on fire, but Kira fucked up. This poison would have sent a lesser man into a seizure just like Hanabi - or really someone who hadn't been inoculated in poison resistance by Orochimaru. 

Kira looks at him and draws her kunai out.

“I didn’t expect a traitor in my team,” Sakumo says. He trusted them, to think he had almost trusted them with Tsukimi’s abilities. For once, Sakumo feels relieved that he had been paranoid enough. 

“I didn’t expect Kira to be the traitor,” Makoto says. Caught in the loop of pain and heart filled with outrage, Sakumo hadn’t noticed that Makoto was missing.

Kira leaps forward. Sakumo digs his heels in, ready for Kira’s signature wind blade but it never comes. Though her moves stutter, her attacks follow through. Kira is their team’s ninjutsu specialist, Kira would never fight taijutsu with him. 

Sakumo parries her blade, keeping her occupied enough for Makoto to shut her chakra points down and overwhelm her.

Paralyzed, Kira stares at them with eyes wide open, fingers quivering. 

“Stop trying to break free,” Makoto says even as he goes to check on Hanabi. He runs a green-lit hand across Hanabi. “She’s okay. For a poison… it’s surprisingly non-lethal.”

“Maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way…” Sakumo murmurs, tapping a finger on his lips. “A ninjutsu specialist that didn’t use ninjutsu… and tried to go hand-to-hand with the team’s taijutsu specialist… A non-lethal poison…”

He crouches and pries her mouth open. There, at the back of her tongue, is a seal. Sakumo isn’t a seal specialist but having had one seal specialist in his genin team and a daughter with budding interest in it, he’s picked up enough bits and pieces to guess the seal’s function. Based on her actions and that tiger style, Kira hadn’t done this willingly. 

“It’s a control seal,” Sakumo tells Makoto. 

“I couldn’t tell,” Makoto says, his voice drier than the sands in Suna. “So Danzo forced her to kill us?”

Sakumo summons Shima. “Get Inoichi and bring him to the sun point. Don’t let anyone see you.” Shima bobs his head and dashes towards Konoha.

“Is that wise?” Makoto asks.

“We don’t really have a choice. If Kira is under control as I suspect, then not even torture would get her to spill anything.”

Makoto sighs, his byakugan running across Kira. “She’s clean of any other chakra seals as far as my byakugan can detect, but I’m no Uchiha.”

“We’ll just have to risk it.” In spite of the ripple effect that had been caused by his refusal to have an Uchiha on his team, Sakumo thought his anger and pettiness was justified. He’s not sure if having Kagami here would have changed anything. The Uchihas had always been better at detecting chakra and hence chakra seals as well. Too late for regrets now.

Sakumo slings Kira across his shoulder and Makoto, wordlessly copies his actions with Hanabi, setting a fast pace behind Sakumo.

The mission can wait, but if Danzo had tried to outright kill them, then Sakumo is going to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

Kira counted as pack to him, until proven that she had willingly betrayed him, she would continue to count as pack. To even lay a hand on his pack, Sakumo would repay the favour thricefold - even if it means committing treason. 

✥.✥.✥

Kakashi didn’t hate Obito like he had with his previous teammates. His previous teammates had been whiny brats who took offence to him being more skilled than them in spite of the four-year gap.

“There’s no way I could keep up with all you prodigies,” Obito whines as he lies there, having been beaten by Kakashi yet again. 

The very least about his previous teammates were that they didn't have any allusions to their skill level. One of them had aspired to be a communications jounin specialist and had worked towards that. Obito on the other hand...

“I’m not a prodigy,” Kakashi growled under his breath, finally irritated by Obito’s whining. “It’s called effort. You talk about wanting to be the Hokage, but I don’t see you putting in any effort.”

Obito leaps up and pushes Kakashi. “You snobby little dipshit. Take that back.”

“Why should I? You always turn up one to two hours late for practice. You talk about helping grandmas with groceries but clearly don’t respect your team’s time. Who would respect you back? Who would hire a shinobi that’s always late for everything, let alone nominate them to be a Hokage?”

Minato-sensei steps in between them, holding them both at arm’s length. “Now, now.”

“Am I wrong, Minato-sensei? If he can’t put in the effort to be on time, then clearly he’s not interested.”

“Kakashi-kun. There’s no need to be mean.”

“This is called being _mean?_ ” Kakashi raises his eyebrows. “I was just being honest.”

“I’ll let you know that I practice a lot!” Obito snarls, pushing at Minato’s arms. 

“Like an additional two hours?” Kakashi scoffs. 

“You—!”

Minato-sensei sighed. “How about Obito stays with Kakashi for a day to see his training routine and Kakashi stays with Obito for a day to see vice versa?”

He silences their protests with a look of disappointment. “If you two can’t come to terms with words, then the only other way is to put yourselves in each other's shoes.”

“... _Fine…”_ They grumble. 

Obito stayed over Kakashi’s place for the night. Ignoring the look of surprise on Obito’s face, Kakashi continued to do kata practice after dinner up to nine p.m. It hadn’t been anything strenuous, basic taijutsu practice and some meditation before bedtime. Otousan said that meditation was an important aspect of a healthy shinobi mind.

Kakashi ignores how badly Obito was lagging, trying to disregard that he was the only Hatake left at home. How is it that even his younger sister is out on a mission and he is stuck in Konoha doing D-ranks?

Kakashi had assumed that since he was older and the more senior genin, _he_ would have been the one on that C-rank. 

It is barely morning when Kakashi wakes startled from a half-nightmare. He knows that Otousan and imouto had been hiding things from him. It must be because he’s not strong enough yet. 

Kakashi shakes Obito awake, conscious of what Minato-sensei had said about shoes and what not. He puts Obito through the morning warmups and spars with Kushina when she arrives to make breakfast. Then drags Obito for laps around Konoha after their breakfast and morning shower.

“Madara’s saggy balls! You do this every day?” Obito sinks onto the ground after they finished their laps.

“No. Every three days of training is followed by one day of rest.”

“I thought my additional four hours was a lot…” Obito looks away. 

Obito doesn’t apologise, but it’s not like Kakashi had expected him to. Even two years after Tsukimi’s accident, Obito hadn’t acted apologetic. Kakashi hadn’t expected him to start being apologetic now.

Kakashi says nothing in return. In the end, they sit in the training ground in silence until Rin and Minato-sensei arrive.

✥.✥.✥

Tsukimi takes a deep breath. With Ay’s lightning armour and incredible speed, it’s unlikely that they would outrun him unless they had Minato’s hiraishin. Not to mention, Minato hadn’t even developed hiraishin yet, Tsukimi thinks hysterically.

“Sensei, we can’t outrun them,” she tells Chouza-sensei. 

His shoulders sag, knowing what she had said was the truth. Ay and his lightning armor had been in the bingo book ever since the end of the second war. She glances at her team. They hadn’t died in canon, but with her being here, there’s no saying if that would change. This isn’t a book or game. They’re alive, just like she is.

Chouza-sensei’s hand tightens over her shoulder. Tsukimi wouldn’t be surprised if he has an inkling on what she’s about to do and say. Chouza-sensei isn’t the genius that his teammate is, but he’s worked long enough with Shikaku to guess.

“I see you’re within the Hi borders,” Tsukimi continues, stepping from behind Chouza-sensei’s bulk. 

With a large grin, Bee folds his arms, his muscles bulging from his position. “What’s this baby-faced genin doing here, the Raikage sends us to terrorize and spread fear.”

“Madou… we don’t go around telling people what we’re here for…” Ay pinches his nose bridge with a sigh.

“My bad, my bad, don’t get mad.”

Tsukimi had been calling them Ay and Bee in her head, but if she remembered correctly Ay and Bee were actually titles for Kumokage and their jinchuuriki. How interesting it is to find out their original names.

“You’re not very much older than us,” Tsukimi says with a wrinkle of her nose. “He might have been in the bingo books for a while, but you…” She motions to Bee, or rather _Madou,_ and lets a slow artificial smile slide across her face. “It’s clear you're as _baby-faced_ as us.”

Ay straightens up and she can feel Chouza-sensei tense behind her. She subtly signs to Chouza-sensei behind her back, a sign that Shikaku had taught her - a code for her own ‘visions’. 

“I’m _sure_ you know _all_ about Konoha’s tree hugging,” she says, talking over before Ay has the chance to rebuke. “I’m sure you recognise Chouza-sensei. Right next to his teammates’ bingo pages, Shadow strangler Shikaku and Mind Eater Inoichi. Are you sure you can take them on?” Tsukimi asks as though she’s talking about the weather. 

She’s glad that even though they only had Higure-sensei for such a short time, Higure-sensei had thought them the ins and outs of bullshitting and leading people on for the maximum effect. Higure-sensei would have likely been able to talk around Ay and Bee and make them think it’s their idea to flee. Tsukimi isn’t as practiced as Higure-sensei is, so she’ll settle for blatantly manipulating them.

There’s the flicker of hesitation across Ay and Bee’s face. If Bee hasn’t gotten his title yet, then he’d unlikely have gotten his sensor abilities yet… _hopefully._ Tsukimi didn’t remember much of Naruto aside from the whole clusterfuck that apparently had something to do with the moon and a rabbit. There’s no telling if the two brothers were sensors of any kind, but she chose her manipulation, she can only stick to it now.

Ay leaps forward and Chouza-sensei hurls her backwards, a growing hand batting Ay’s katana away. Taking advantage of Ay’s momentarily distraction, Tsukimi touches the ground, letting her chakra bleed out into an explosive seal formation. She jumps back. Bee’s blade shearing inches off her bangs. 

_Release._

The ground explodes and Bee is sent skidding backwards.

Hopefully the nearest outpost had a sensor of some sort, she thinks as Gai and Genma flank her.

“Wanna try that again? _Maadou-kuun_?” Tsukimi purls. She has to be brave and fierce now. 

“Baby-faced genin have a lot of fight in them, and mad skillz that beat furiously like a drum! Madou—” 

“We’re leaving.” Ay jerks Bee back, cutting his rhyme in mid-sentence.

They watch the brothers disappear into the distance, Tsukimi tracking them with her limited sensors. She feels a patrol approaching them and dash past them when Chouza-sensei signs to them.

Tensions leaks out of them and Genma sinks to the ground with a huge gasp. “Shodaime’s saggy balls! I thought you were going to get us killed, Tsukimi-chaan!”

“I saw you signal to Chouza-sensei! I’ve never seen that sign!” Gai says.

Chouza-sensei kneads between his eyebrows. “I’m already regretting listening to Higure and Shikaku. Shikaku is going to owe me so much yakitori. Come on team, let’s hurry to the outpost. Up, up, up!” He claps his hands and nudges Genma with a foot.

“Good job on the reaction time when Madou attacked. Gai and Genma-kun, good job on staying silent when unsure on what to do. Tsukimi-chan…” 

He waits for Gai and Genma to take point before continuing, settling their pace intentionally slow for some resemblance of privacy. “Did you see that _this_ would happen?”

“That Ay and Bee would meet us? No. But Ay and Bee… Ay and Madou, rather… They haven’t gotten their titles yet.” 

“ _Ay and Bee?_ ” Chouza-sensei’s voice rises an octave. “Ay and Bee. They become Ay and Bee. Ay as in the Kumokage and Bee as in the Kumokage’s right hand man. That Ay and Bee.”

“Bee actually becomes the jinchuuriki too,” Tsukimi says. Chouza-sensei’s face grows pale.

“He becomes the jinchuuriki.” Chouza-sensei repeats a few more times before seemingly dismissing her and Tsukimi speeds up to catch up with her team. Behind, she can hear Chouza-sensei muttering debt and strangling Shikaku with his shadow.

✥.✥.✥

Sakumo should have gotten Inoichi to him instead. Holding down the fort would have been easier than fending attacks while running.

Sakumo had fucked up. Now all he has is a dead teammate that might have been a traitor and still no information. 

✥.✥.✥

A hawk circles their training ground midway through their daily practice and Minato-sensei tells them to finish their training and cooldowns before heading home. Kakashi has seen enough of Otou-san’s hawk orders to somewhat decipher them: an emergency A-rank mission requiring specialist, Minato-sensei being the said specialist. Without being told, Kakashi knows that it’s unlikely that they would have any training tomorrow. 

He finishes his training and starts on his Hatake katas. Uchiha and Nohara had taken a dinner break, or perhaps had gone to get takeaway. Kakashi isn’t very sure, he hadn’t been paying too much attention. There’s something that’s setting his teeth on the edge, an inexplicable, insistent nudge to usher himself in the Nara Compound since Minato-sensei had left. Minato-sensei should have walked him back to the compound. Otou-san had emphasised before he left that imouto and him should always be kept with an adult jounin . Just a stroke of luck, Kakashi thinks. 

Then again, Otou-san liked to say that shinobis’ don’t dismiss their gut instincts. 

Trying not to send himself into some paranoid dash through town, Kakashi starts on a lap that coincidentally weaves through the busier parts of the training grounds and marketplace. Or it should have. Training ground seven - the most popular and difficult training ground to book is empty. In his attempt to push down his paranoia, Kakashi had forgotten that teams were being sent out for the war efforts. 

Kakashi sees an Anbu catching up then cutting him off. An Anbu with a blank mask, he has never seen one of those before. Were they super top-secret? Or maybe extremely high ranking? 

“Hatake Kakashi, please follow me,” the Anbu says curtly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are playing 'win-lose or draw' for this chapter!  
>  **Please select only one option!  
>  Please note that mission brief might not reflect the actual difficulty of the assignment!**  
> 1 being highest and 5 being the lowest.
> 
> Team Chouza gets to pick their next assignment from the nearest outpost!
> 
>  **Option [A]**  
>  Client: Outpost 65-B-127 Priority: 4  
> Orders: Retrieve package from target A at Village Hanazaku and deliver to Outpost 65-B-127
> 
>  **Option [B]**  
>  Client: Hyuuga Kaito Priority: 2  
> Orders: Retrieve seal scroll from Jounin Sarutobi Hiro and deliver to Hyuuga Kaito
> 
>  **Option [C]**  
>  Client: Toshiyuki Saeki Priority: 5  
> Orders: Deliver supplies from Village Hokukawa to Fire Temple
> 
>  **Option [D]**  
>  Client: Shigochiyo Hayato Priority: 4  
> Orders: Escort Shigochiyo Kaori from Outpost 65-B-127 to Capital Miyako, Daimyo palace.


	19. Genin 8

(I forgot to add the votes that won)

**Discord vote: The traitor is dead. What should Sakumo do? Winning Vote: Complete the mission, then kill the Root**

**10: Option [C]**

**Client: Toshiyuki Saeki  
Priority: 5  
Orders: Deliver supplies from Village Hokukawa to Fire Temple**

* * *

Immediately his paranoia rises back in full force. Kakashi might be a shinobi but he is just a genin. There isn’t a reason why _an Anbu_ would seek him out in order to fetch him. His breath catches in his throat for a brief second when he contemplates that maybe something had happened to his sister on a mission. 

No. If that was the case then they would have informed Karasuki-obasama seeing that she is in the village and the clan head. Everything about this stank.

“I apologise,” Kakashi says. “The Jounin commander has summoned me urgently.”

“The Jounin Commander would understand when he finds out that the Council has summoned you.”

Is this why Otou-san had insisted that an adult jounin accompanied him? 

Unease curdles in the back of his throat. Kakashi leaps away from the Anbu, channelling white chakra into his legs even though he knows Otou-san had cautioned him not to until he was more well-versed in it. He barely makes it past a hundred metres before something slams onto the back of his spine and he collapses, paraylzed. Unable to move, Kakashi can only watch the Anbu approach him and pick him up.

✥.✥.✥

The outpost guards meet them when Team Chouza is just an hour away. The guards signal to them and Chouza-sensei signals back. 

Passcodes are complicated in Naruto verse, Tsukimi thinks. Not because they’re _complicated_ persay, but because of the limited ways one can verify with a force as big as Konoha. There is a passcode book that is summon-delivered to each team captain every two weeks which has a hundred different passcodes for them to memorise. Chouza-sensei had walked through them in memorisation techniques, but they weren’t very good at it yet. 

“Team Thirty-six?” asks one of the guards. 

While team names were often used in-village, apparently team assigned numbers are used in-field during conflicts. To make them seemingly more anonymous, Tsukimi supposes. She wonders how her world… her _previous life’s_ army’s system had worked, but that’s a rabbit hole she’s not willing to dig up.

“Yes,” Chouza-sensei replies and verifies once more their individual team signal codes. “We met hostiles on the way here.”

The one that’s most likely the team captain nods. “Patrol sent a missive back. Escorting them back over the borders.”

The guards turn, and as all of them move towards the outpost, the guards takes a diamond formation around them. Tsukimi is certain that most guards don’t do that. But what would she know? She had never alerted an outpost before. Their pace is fast and furious, almost like they’re afraid that Ay and Bee might change their minds and attempt to attack them. 

Genma sinks to the ground, panting when they finally arrive at the outpost. 

Chouza-sensei glances at him. “We’ll work on your stamina,” he tells Genma.

“But sensei!” Genma whines.

“Both Gai and Tsukimi-chan didn’t have a reaction like yours.”

Tsukimi isn’t going to tell him that she’s only still standing because of the wall that she’s so ‘casually’ leaning against and that Gai’s a stamina beast, so it’s a moot point to measure anyone against him. 

“Genma-kun.”

Genma wilts under Chouza-sensei’s disapproving look. “Yes sensei…” he mutters and flops onto the ground. 

“We’ll rest here for the night and pick a new mission tomorrow.” Chouza-sensei flips through the mission requests in the outpost. 

“What are we getting?” Gai peers around Chouza-sensei’s arm. “Let’s do this!”

“Escorting supplies?” Chouza-sensei asks. 

“No, wait—” Tsukimi says just as Gai bounces on the balls of his feet with a large YES grin. Escorting supplies during war is one of the worst possible missions. If they are lucky, they would be only escorting low priority supplies which aren’t that appealing to destroy. If they are unlucky, they could be escorting essentials. “Let’s pick another one,” she suggests.

Gai turns to Genma who shrugs. “I’m okay with escort.”

“But we’re escorting supplies and it’s wartime. What do you think we’re going to be escorting? Enemy-nins aren’t going to know what’s in the supply train. They’ll probably hit all and any supply train,” she hisses.

“It’s a genin mission,” Genma says. “How bad can it be?”

Clearly no one ever taught Genma not to ever say those words before a mission.

✥.✥.✥

Danzo is a traitor, Sakumo repeats the words in his mind. He wonders when had his life become so complicated. All his life, he had been a foot soldier, another cog in the system. He might have been a slightly more outstanding one, but he hadn’t made decisions, hadn’t had to decide how to maneuver politics. There had been a reason why he had refused the clan head nomination and happily gave way to Karasuki instead.

The last portion of the mission isn’t any better than the beginning. It’s disgusting. The more Sakumo thinks about it, the more he thinks that this mission had all been a trap. Were there going to be repercussions for actually completing the mission?

He buries the last child body with a well-used headhunter jutsu. 

_You will go out on a mission one day soon, the third shinobi war will explode from the mission. It’ll be a mission you fail to save your teammates lives and be blamed for the war. And you’ll kill yourself because of it. What they don’t know is that the mission was rigged._

Sakumo feels a tendril of terror paw at his neck. “We have to go _now,_ ” he tells Makoto. 

“Taichou?” Makoto and Hanabi hurried to catch up with him.

“What’s wrong?” Hanabi asks, finally flanking him.

“The mission is rigged.”

“ _Really._ I couldn’t tell,” Makoto says tonelessly.

“If it’s as I suspect, this mission wasn’t given out by Sandaime, but Shimura Danzo. This mission that we just completed...” He glances at his last two remaining teammates and feels a pang of sadness. How Team Shijin been reduced down to this? “We might suffer repercussions from it. _Blackmail_ if you want to consider it.”

“Meaning they’re going to use it against us?” Hanabi deliberates over it.

“Likely under the opinion that we have deliberately sought this out. Bloodthirsty, revenge hungry… whatever description you might think of that would get us either stripped or demoted from the forces.”

“And since it was an S rank, it wasn’t like we could present the mission scroll we accepted as proof since it’s S rank protocol to burn the mission scrolls upon receiving it.”

Sakumo nods at Makoto words. “Which is why, we are very likely deemed as outcasts the moment we arrive home.”

Hanabi swears. “Is there anything we can do?”

“I have… contingencies for this…” Sakumo reluctantly says. “The Naras have been working with me on this. However, I hadn’t expected Danzo to include the entire team.”

Hanabi falters in mid-leap, nearly missing her next branch. “Then what do we do, Taichou?”

Sakumo stops on a tree trunk, Makoto following just a beat later. “I’ll falsify your deaths. The Hatakes… considering how Danzo seems bent on destroying all of us, would be unsafe to hide you. The Naras would hide you. And in the meantime, we dig up evidence for Danzo’s crimes.”

✥.✥.✥

It takes them another four days before Team Chouza finally arrives at Village Hokukawa. Chouza-sensei had set training routines for them while on the move. Tsukimi had not enjoyed leapfrogging for an hour before alternating it with carrying a teammate for fifteen minutes and switching with another. Thankfully due to her age, Chouza-sensei had allowed her to slowly increase her carrying time instead of the way he needled Genma and Gai everytime they faltered.

“Remember to act professional,” Chouza-sensei reminds them as they enter the Village’s avenue. Tall Hashirama trees line and encircle the large sprawling village. Village Hokukawa is further up north, where snow is a more commonplace occurrence. Their steeper roofs were an indicator of a heavier snowfall. Tsukimi hadn’t seen much of houses like this from all their courier runs around the border.

Following Chouza-sensei up to the largest house, the door swings open even before he knocks it. An old man nodded at him after Chouza-sensei went through the verification process. “I assume you’re the team escorting the supplies.” He motions them to follow him through the house. “We have ten wagons. Eight of them are essentials, two of them are luxuries.” 

At the back of the house, is the largest barn Tsukimi has ever seen and there are many more wagons in there. In other deliveries, this village could send probably more than twenty wagons, she thinks. 

Fire temple isn’t that far from Village Hokukawa. At a chuunin’s pace, it would only take them a mere three days. At a civilian’s pace, it could take up to six or seven days. 

“This would take roughly twelve days,” Chouza-sensei tells them as the drivers ready the wagons. “Take a good rest, tomorrow we will start at daybreak.”

Twelve days of escort near the Haruhi belt where one of the heaviest fighting had taken place. There’s no way this would go smoothly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chouza-sensei has offered to teach a jutsu. 
> 
> As Tsukimi is primary Lightning element, she learns lightning jutsu twice as fast. She will learn and master 2 jutsu in this option.  
> As Tsukimi is secondary Water element, she learns water jutsu at an average speed. She will learn and master 1 jutsu in this option.  
> As Tsukimi is not affilated to Fire, Earth or Wind, she will learn these jutsu at half the speed. She will learn but not master this jutsu in this option.
> 
>  **Please select either two lighting jutsu **or** one non-lightning jutsu:**  
> [ ] Fire spark [Rank D Fire jutsu] Light a fire pit with chakra.  
> Starter skill to learning fire jutsu. Compulsory to learn before learning other fire jutsu.
> 
> [ ] Wind cut [Rank D wind jutsu] Cut a leaf with chakra.  
> Starter skill to learning wind jutsu. Compulsory to learn before learning other wind jutsu.
> 
> [ ] Static hand [Rank D lightning jutsu] Generate static and annoy people with it.  
> Starter skill to learning lightning jutsu. Compulsory to learn before learning other lightning jutsu.
> 
> [ ] Lightning hand [Rank D lightning jutsu] Upgradable to C rank based on chakra control stats. Channel lightning on hand. Mildly accelerates handseal speed (when it's active).
> 
> [ ] Lightning finger [Rank D lightning jutsu] Upgradable to B rank based on chakra control and [Not yet unlocked Skill] stats. Channel lightning through a finger. Numbs target area at D rank, can knock people out at C rank, can kill people out at B rank.
> 
> [ ] Soil creator [Rank D earth jutsu] Create farmable soil from dirt. Starter skill to learning earth jutsu. Compulsory to learn before learning other earth jutsu.
> 
> [ ] Water droplet [Rank D water jutsu] Pull a tiny droplet of water from a container.  
> Starter skill to learning water jutsu. Compulsory to learn before learning other water jutsu.
> 
>  **Further author's notes:**  
>  Quick reminder for those who don't remember the previous skillsets learn. Tsukimi has _basic_ chakra control. It's highly unlikely she would use much ninjutsu in her fighting. Some skills in the future may require a particular skill that may not seem valuable right now. The full list of her skills are on discord, I don't want to fill my chps with lists of her current skills and what not.
> 
> Tsukimi’s Current skill set:  
> STRENGTH: Academy | AGILITY: Advanced | ENDURANCE: Basic (from Chouza's exercises) | BALANCE: Basic | WEAPONS: Academy | CHAKRA CONTROL: basic


	20. Genin 9

Tsukimi scuttles up the tree, sending chakra into her nose to amplify her sensing. She’s not very good at the Hatake sensing technique, unlike Otousan who is a master of it. Standing on the top of the tree, taking in the endless forest and dips of land, Tsukimi can’t help but feel separated from all her worries. 

It almost feels like it won’t matter whether Sakumo lives or dies. Kakashi would be there and that’s almost good enough.

She’s been out more than a month. She’s had a first kill, then more. Chouza-sensei wouldn’t be her first choice for walking her through the aftermath, but he had done his best for all of her team. 

Tsukimi bounces off the branch, silently landing next to Chouza-sensei. 

_‘No enemies’,_ she signals to him as she retakes her position on the left. 

They are halfway through the escort. Already the escort had been hit three times. Thankfully all just hungry farmers that they had managed to dissuade by letting them know that the daimyo has monetary assistance for people affected by the war.

She practices her static hand enough that she no longer needs hand seals for it. Chouza-sensei had taught her Lightning Finger after she had stealthily made his hair stand upright with her static hand. 

Her fledgling tiger stalk stealth with her newly mastered Lightning Finger might make a terrifying combo, she thinks.

The scraggly trees slowly change into larger leafier trees. Tsukimi mentally marks the route down as they pass another landmark. Their routes twist and turn. She bounds forward and back, making full use of her stealth jutsu to ensure a perimeter. More than one case, she had sensed non-allied shinobi and steered the caravan away. 

It’s day ten when it starts pouring. Rain falls in heavy and large drops, drenching them thoroughly in a matter of seconds. The donkeys’ ears flick in the rain. There’s something not quite right but Tsukimi can’t tell what.

“We have to stop,” a driver yells to Chouza-sensei. “Soichiro’s wheel is stuck.”

Tsukimi rests on a branch, taking an eagle eye of their surroundings as Genma takes the opposite branch facing her, watching their backs. 

Chouza-sensei approaches the wagon. She can sense the chakra pulsing in him as he enlarges his hands and lifts it up and out of the ditch. The ditch is normal. Chouza-sensei hadn’t signalled anything even after his closer look. He refills the ditch, allowing the other wagons to cross.

The hair on the back of her neck seems to stand. 

She looks up at Genma. His brown hair is plastered to his face. He arches an eyebrow at her. “What’s wrong?”

She looks at Gai. The rain is pouring so hard that it almost looks like white sheets driving itself into the ground. 

“Tsukimi-chan?”

The sound of the rain pounds in her ears. There’s nothing wrong… but something nags at her. A genjutsu? It couldn’t be, not with all these stimulations. Almost impossible to replicate. 

Still something sets her teeth on the edge. 

Against her better judgement, Tsukimi flexes her chakra the way something would to dispel a genjutsu.

Nothing changes.

Was she being overly paranoid?

No something is wrong—

She flexes her chakra again. Rain is pouring down around her, cold and miserable. Her underarmor is practically clinging to her skin, but she’s not crouching on the tree branch. 

A genjutsu? She shudders a breath because it seems like the only thing she can do. ‘ _Go back to sleep’_ her mind seems to tell her. A compulsion genjutsu? She remembered Kakashi’s friend talking about the different kind of genjutsus there were. 

Tsukimi struggles to dispel any lingering genjutsu. After a few attempts, she guesses that whatever that isn’t letting her move isn’t a genjutsu. It is either that or she had been ensnared by a very _very_ good genjutsu specialist. That is not to say that Tsukimi is a genjutsu specialist of any sort and only by logical deduction that anyone who can incorporate two or more types of genjutsu type - two types of compulsion and at _least_ one hallucination, has to be very good.

_Clang._

_Earth wall!_

Tsukimi can’t make out who is saying that. Her eyes, just like her limbs refuse to listen to her. 

_Wind Blade!_

She forces her chakra to circulate faster, forces her eyes open, her fingers to twitch. She looks up and catches glimpses of headbands that are most definitely not Konoha. Turning her head, Tsukimi realises that neither of the opposing sides are Konoha. 

And strangely… weren’t Suna fighting against Konoha too? Why were they fighting Iwa?

Someone lands next to her. Short red hair, black uniform under a khaki vest. He turns, greyish brown eyes catch hers. It takes her a brief moment to put a name to the familiar face. 

_Sasori._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for the wait and length of it. I had been working on it when my chronic illness relapsed and it's pretty bad this time. I'll be taking 3 months off to recover, so decided to just post what I had first. I hope you'll be patient with me, thank you.

**Author's Note:**

>  **How to play:**  
>  \- pick the choice(s) as provided by me.  
> \- if the choice of filling out your own option is available, simply paste that option and fill on what you want.  
> \- if you see someone who filled out a "write in your choice" and like it, reply to that comment  
> \- if choices involve something visual, you may offer suggestions and pictures of what things should look like. E.g her weapon/outfit etc
> 
>  **About the choices.**  
>  _Skill:_ A lot of the options available now would be gone the moment she graduates. Any training option would be dependent on whether a teacher is available, or which teacher she gets. More than likely the options you'll get after her graduation would be only speciality options.  
> Example if Tsukimi graduates without advanced chakra control, the option of being a ninjutsu specialist/learning an advanced jutsu is very unlikely.  
> Basic skill choices may eventually be available. Selecting them later may interfere with other possible skill routes. You may need a combination of Skill A and Skill B to unlock an advanced Skill.
> 
>  _Random event:_ Random events may happen (although more frequently on missions). The choice may be hidden until the event has passed, in which the choices will be revealed. If a similar choice was chosen in previous chps, no choice would pop up again unless the situation changes.
> 
>  **Further notes:**  
>  Full skill progression and stat list are currently available on Discord.  
> As the choices in the following chapters would be tricky, I highly recommend people joining discord to discuss them before putting their votes down.  
> https://discord.gg/8qMGVrg

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [dream sweet in sea major](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23646244) by [scrambled](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrambled/pseuds/scrambled)




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